li- 


li 


BR  515  .A57  1893  v. 6  c.2 
Carroll,  Henry  K.  1848-1931 
The  religious  forces  of  the 
United  States 


(American  C^xxxc^  giefot)^ 


A   HISTORY 


OF    THE 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCHES 
IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 


BY 

ROBERT  ELLIS  THOMPSON,  D.  D. 


^ 


Zf^t  Cf}xiBtx(Xn  literature  Co. 


MDCGCXCV 


Copyright,  1895, 
By  The  Christian   Literature   Company. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE.. 

Bibliography xi 

CHAP.  I. — Introduction  :  The  Historic  Antecedents  in  the 
Old  World. — The  Reformed  Polity. — The  Ulster  Plantation. — 
Agreement  among  the  Churches. — The  Reformed  Discipline. — A 
Covenanted  Nation T 

CHAP.  II.— The  Day  of  Small  Things,  1629-1713.— "  The  New 
England  Way." — Presbyterians  in  Maryland. — The  First  Presby- 
tery.— Harmony  with  New  England 13 

CHAP.  III. — Growth  and  Dissension,  1713-41. — The  Great  Immi- 
gration.— Church  and  School. — Subscription  Established. — "  Bar- 
barism the  Danger." — The  Great  Awakening. — The  Division  of 
1 741 22 

CHAP.  IV. — From  the  Schism  to  the  Reunion,  1741-58. — The 
Education  Problem. — Faults  of  the  Awakening. — The  Presbytery 
of  Hanover. — Covenanters  and  Seceders. — Rous  or  Watts? 34 

CHAP.  V. — Reunion  and  Growth,  1758-75. — The  American  Se- 
ceders.— Dissensions  in  the  Synod. — New  Side  Rigor. — The  Need 
of  a  Bishop. — A  Joint  Convention 45 

CHAP.  VI.— Independence  AND  Reorganization,  1776-89. — Pres- 
byterian Patriotism. — Beyond  the  Alleghanies. — Covenanters  and 
Seceders  Unite. — The  New  Constitution. — Laying  Bonds  on  the 
Future. — Presbyterian  Example  Followed 56 

CHAP.  VII. — Revival  and  Dissension,  1789-1810. — Presbyterian 
Strength  and  Losses. — The  "Associated  Presbyteries." — The 
Great  Revival. — The  Lesser  Bodies. — Statistics  of  Growth 68 

CHAP.  VIII.— The  Era  of  New  Methods,   1810-30.— The  New    l^ 
West. — Theological  Seminaries. — Hopkinsianism. — Individualism. 
— Church  Life. — A  Hasty  Union. — An  Era  of  Growth 79 

CHAP.  IX.— The  New  Age.— Theocratic  Ideals.— "  The  Beauty  of 

Holiness."—"  The  Spirit  of  All  Ages." 95 

CHAP.  X. — Years  of  Strife,  1831-36. — Division  among  Covenant- 
ers.— Albert    Barnes's    Sermon. — "  Misadelphi^." — Mr.    Barnes's 

V 


vi  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


Second  Trial.— The  "  Act  and  Testimony."— The  Policy  of  Sepa- 
ration       I02 

CHAP.  XI.— The  Division  of  1837-38.— The  Exscinding  Acts. — 
The  New  School  Organize. — The  Moderates. — Deliverances  on 
Slavery. — Boards,  or  Societies? — The  Leaders  in  Debate 115 

CHAP.  XII. — From  War  to  War,  1840-60. — Agitation  and  Work. 
— Presbyterians  and  Slavery. — New-school  Faithfulness. — Old- 
school  NeutraHty. — A  New  Atmosphere. — Eldership  and  Boards. — 
Biblical  Scholarship. — Church  History. — Reunion  of  Seceders. — 
Rigidity  Relaxed 129 

CHAP.  XIII.— The  War  for  the  Union  and  Two  Secessions, 
1861-70. — The  Assembly  of  1861. — The  Spring  Resolutions. — 
Religion  and  Politics. — The  Confederate  Church. — Reunion  in  the 
South. — Revivals  in  the  Armies. — The  Border  States. — "Running 
the  Churches." — The  Assembly  of  1865. — The  Declaration  and 
Testimony. — Changes  in  the  South 150 

CHAP.  XIV. — The  Reunion  of  the  Old  and  New  School 
Churches,  1869-70. — A  Reunion  Conference. — Bishops  Mcllvaine 
and  Lee. — Answer  to  the  Protest. — Dr.  Stearns's  Sermon. — Re- 
union Consummated. — Reorganization. — Suspension  of  Mr.  Stuart   172    ^  i 

CHAP.  XV.— Work  and  Growth,  1870-88.— Dr.  McCosh  and  Sus-        •     '   ^ 
tentation. — Woman's  Work  in  the  Church. — The  Color-line  in  the 
Church. — Grant's   Indian    Policy. — Schools    and   Colleges. — Paro- 
chi  .1  Schools. — Missionary  Advance. — Instrumental  Music. — Chris- 
tian Union. — The  Historic  Episcopate 187 

CHAP.  XVI. — Theological  and  Literary  Life  since  1870. — Dog- 
matic Theology. — Biblical  Scholarship. — Church  Historians. — De- 
votional Writers. — Hymnologists. — The  Swing  Trial. — Lesser 
Heretics 209 

CHAP.  XVII. — The  Congregational  Life  and  Worship  of  the 
Church. — Presbytery  and  Congregation. — The  Eldership. — Poly- 
pragmatic  Pastors. — A  Presbyterian  Liturgy. — Innovations  in  Wor- 
ship.— Loss  and  Gain  in  Spiritual  Life. — Christian  Nurture  and 
Work. — Church  Discipline  and  Unity 226 

CHAP.  XVIII. — The  Revision  Controversy. — Scottish  Relaxation. 
— Friends  and  Foes  of  Revision. — Objections  to  Revision. — The 
"  Elastic  Formula." — Presbyterian  Losses. — Haifa  Loaf,  or  None? 
— The  Vote  on  Revision. — National  Confessions 243 

CHAP.  XIX. — The  Briggs  and  Smith  Trials. — Errancy  and  Iner- 
rancy.— Dr.  Briggs's  Inaugural. — A  Questionable  Appeal. — A 
Questionable  Sentence. — Dr.  Smith's  Appeal. — Conservative  Con- 
cessions      261 

CHAP.  XX. — The  Seminary  Question,  and  other  Matters. — 
Status  of  the  Seminaries. — Plan  of  Federation. — Political  Dissent. 
— Theocratic  Reform. — Strife  before  Stagnation 274 


CO.V7]EA'7'S.  vii 

I'AGE 

CHAP.  XXI. — Retrospect  and  Prospect,  1705-1895. — The  Pres- 
byterian Idea. — A  Dual  Church. — The  Lessons  of  History. — The 
Strength  of  Puritanism. — The  Kirk's  Discipline. — The  Great  Awak- 
ening.— Faults  and  Merits. — A  Mediating  Church. — The  Churchly 
Age. — The  Social  Spirit. — Socialist  Exaggerations. — The  Begin- 
nings of  Schism. — The  Perils  and  the  PI  ope  of  Union. — Unhistoric 
Unionism. — A  Trinitarian  Church. — The  Three  Types 284 

APPENDIX. — The  National  Covenant. — Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 
— Adopting  Acts,  1647. — Adopting  Acts,  1729. — Explanatory  Act, 
1736.— The  Protestation,  1 741. — The  Plan  of  Union,  1758.— The 
Basis  of  Union,  1782. — The  Adopting  Act,  1788. — Declaration  of 
Principles,  1788. — The  Plan  of  Union,  1801. — The  Exscinding 
Acts,  1837. — The  Auburn  Declaration,  1837. — Deliverances  on 
Slavery,  1 78 7-1853. — Basis  of  Union,  1858. — The  Spring  Reso- 
lutions, 1861. — The  Southern  Address,  1861. — Basis  of  Reunion, 
1869. — Concurrent  Declarations,  1869. — The  Charges  and  Sentence 
in  the  case  of  Dr.  Briggs. — Proposed  Plan  for  Federation 317 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE   PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN 
THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Rev.   ROBERT   ELLIS   THOMPSON,  D.D., 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 


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BIBLIOGRAPHY,  xiii 

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xiv  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

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of  Religion  under  their  Ministry.      Princeton,  1845. 

Baird,  Charles  W.,  77ie  Civil  Status  of  Presbyterians  in  the  Province  of 
Xe-iV  York.      In  the  "  Magazine  of  American  History,"  New  York,  1879. 

Balch,  Thomas,  Calvinis)n  and  American  Independence,     n.  d. 

Barnes,  Albert,  Essay  on  the  Life  and  Times  of  President  Davies.  Prefixed 
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Beatty,  Charles,  Journal  of  a  T700  Alonths''  Tour  7vith  a  View  of  Promot- 
ing Religion  among  the  Frontier  Inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania,  and  of 
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Ales;h-geny  Mountains.  Philadelphia,  1768;  London,  1768;  Edinburgh, 
1798. 

Blair,  Samuel,  A  Short  and  Faithful  Narrative  of  the  late  Remarkable  Re- 
vival of  Religion  in  the  Congregation  of  New-Londonderry,  and  Other 
Pai-ts  of  Pennsylvania.      Philadelphia,  Bradford,  1744. 

,  A  Vindication  of  the  Brethren  who  were  Unjustly  and  Illegally  Cast 

Out  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia,  from  Maintaining  Principles  of  An- 
archy in  the  Church.      Philadelphia,  Franklin,  1744. 

Bowen,  L.  P.,  The  Days  of  Makemie;  or.  The  Vine  Planted:  A.D.  16S0- 
iyo8.     With  an  Appendix.      Philadelphia,  Presbyterian  Board,  1885. 

Brainerd,  Thomas,  The  Life  of  John  Brainerd,  the  Brother  of  David 
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Breed,  William  V..,  An  Historical  Discourse  on  Presbyterians  and  the  Revo- 
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Briggs,  Charles  Augustus,  American  Presbyterianism  :  Its  Origin  and 
Early  History.  Together  with  an  Appendix  of  Letters  and  Documents, 
many  ofivhich  have  Recently  been  Discovered.  With  Maps.  New  York, 
1885. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  XV 

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is  added  Sketches  of  the  Anthor''s  Life,  also  Revivals  in  Bridgehampton 
and  Easthampton  in  iSoo.      Sag  Harbor,  1808.) 

Carruthers,  E,  W.,  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Character  of  David  Cald- 
u<ell,  D.D.,  near  Sixty  Years  Pastor  of  the  Churches  of  Buffalo  and 
Almance  [N.  C.].  Including  Some  Account  of  the  Regulation,  together 
-iinth  the  Revolutionary  Transactions  in  which  he  %vas  Concerned ;  and  a 
Jl'ry  Brief  Xotice  of  the  Ecclesiastical  and  Moral  Condition  of  N'ar th 
Carolina  while  in  its  Colonial  State.     Greensborough,  N.  C,  1842. 

Clyde,  John  C,  Life  and  Labors  of  John  Rosbrugh,  the  Clerical  Martyr 
of  the  Revolution.      Easton,  Pa.,  1880. 

Craighead,  J.  G.,  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish  in  American  Soil.  Philadelphia, 
1878. 

Davies,  Samuel,  Letters  Shozving  the  State  of  Religion  in  Virginia,  Par- 
ticularly among  the  A'egroes.   Boston,  1751-1757;  London,  1757  and  1761. 

,   The  State  of  Religion  amon^. .     '?  Protestant  Dissenters  in  Virginia; 

in  a  Letter  to  Joseph  Bellamy,      j.  jston,  1751. 

Dickie,  J.  F.,  John  IVitherspoon,  Patriot,  1722-17^4.     Detroit,  n.  d. 

Dickinson,  Jonathan,  A  Display  of  God  ^s  Special  Grace,  in  .  .  .  the  Con- 
viction and  Conversion  of  Siniiers,  so  Remarkably  of  late  Begun,  and  Going 
on  in  these  American  Parts.      Boston,  1 742;   2d  ed.,  Philadelphia,  1 743. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  David  Brainerd,  Missionary  to 
the  I/idians  on  the  Borders  of  iVew  York,  N'ew  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania  ; 
Chiefly  Taken  from  his  own  Diary.  Boston,  1747.  (New  edition,  by 
Sereno  Edwards  Dwight,  including  his  Journal,  now  for  the  First  Time 
Incorporated  with  the  Rest  of  his  Diary  in  a  Regular  Chronological 
Order.     New  Haven,  1822.) 

Engles,  William  M.,  Records  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  containing  the  Minutes  of  the  Presbytery  of  Phila- 
delphia from  A.D.  lyob  to  lyib  ;  Minutes  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia 
from  A.D.  ijiy  to  iJS^  y  Minutes  of  the  Synod  of  A'eiv  York  from  A.D. 
174s  to  1738 ;  Minutes  of  the  Synod  of  A^ezu  York  and  Philadelphia 
from  A.D.  1738  to  17SS.  Philadelphia,  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publica- 
tion, 1841. 

Finley,  Samuel,  Letter  to  a  Friend  concerning  Mr.  Whitfleld,  Messrs.  Ten- 
nents,  and  their  Opposers.      Philadelphia,  Franklin,  1740. 

Gillespie,  George,  A  Letter  to  the  Reverend  Brethren  of  the  Presbytery  of 
A'etu  York,  or  of  Elizabethtoivn,  in  which  is  Shoivn  the  Unjustness  of  the 
Synod's  Protest,  entered  last  May  at  Philadelphia,  against  Some  of  the 
Reverend  Brethren ;  as  also  Some  of  the  Causes  of  the  Great  Decay  of 
Vital  Religion  and  Practical  Holiness  in  our  Presbyterial  Church.  With 
Proofs  of  God^s  Remarkable  Appearance  for  the  Good  of  Many  Souls. 
Philadelphia,  Franklin,  1740. 

Headley,  J.  T.,  The  Chaplains  and  Clergy  of  the  American  Revolution. 
New  York,  1864. 

Hill,  William,  A  History  of  the  Rise,  Progress,  and  Character  of  Arnerican 
Presbyterianism.  Togetherwith  a  Reviezv  of ' '  The  Constitutional  History 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,''''  by  Charles 
Hodge,  D.L).     Washington,  1839. 


xvi  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Hodge,  Charles,  The  Constitutional  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States  of  America.  Parts  i.  and  ii.,  lyo^-iySS.  Philadel- 
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Life  of  the  Rev.  William  Tennent  [Jr.].  With  an  Account  of  his  being  Three 
Days  in  a  Trance.     New  York,  1847  and  1858. 

Patillo,  Henry,  Sermons,  etc. :  I.  On  the  Divisions  among  Christians ; 
II.  On  the  A'ecessity  of  Regeneration  to  Future  Happiness ;  III.  The 
Scripture  Doctrine  of  Election  ;  IV.  Extract  of  a  Letter  from  Mr.  Whit- 
field to  Mr.  Wesley  ;  V.  An  Address  to  the  Deists.  Wilmington,  N.  C, 
1788. 

Prince,  Thomas,  Jr.,  The  Christian  History,  containing  Accounts  of 
the  Revival  and  Propagation  of  Religion  in  Great  Britain  and  America 
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S>ice,  John  H.,  A  Alemoir  of  President  Davies.  In  his  "  Literary  and 
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Smith,  Samuel  Stanhope,  Life  of  John  Witherspoon,  D.D.  With  the  Ser- 
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Spence,  Irving,  Letters  on  the  Early  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
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Spencer,  Elihu,  The  State  of  the  Dissenting  Interest  in  the  Middle  Colonies 
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Tennent,  Gilbert,  Ilie  Danger  of  an  Unconverted  Ministry  Considered  in 
a  Sermon  on  Alark  vi.  J4,  Preached  at  Nottingham,  Pa.  Philadelphia, 
Franklin,  1740.      (German  translation,  Germantown,  Saur,  1740.) 

The  Case  of  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  of  the  City  of  New  York.     New  York^ 

1773- 

Thornton,  J.  W.,  The  Pulpit  of  the  American  Revolution;  or.  The  Political 
Sermons  of  the  Period.  With  an  Historical  Introduction,  Notes,  and  Illus- 
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Tracy,  Joseph,  The  Great  Awakening:  A  History  of  the  Revival  of  Re- 
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Webster,  Richard,  A  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  America,  from 
its  Origin  until  the  Year  lydo.  With  Biographical  Sketches  of  its  Early 
Ministers.  With  a  Memoir  of  its  Author  by  the  Rev.  C.  van  Rensselaer, 
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D.D.     Philadelphia,  Joseph  M.  Wilson,  1858. 

Whitefield,  George,  A  Continuation  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  WhitefieWs  Journal 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY.  xvii 

Adair,  Robert,  Memoir  of  Rev.  James  Patterson,  late  Pastor  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church,  A^orthern  Liberties,  Philadelphia.  With  an  Intro- 
duction and  Chapter  on  Field  Preaching  by  Rev.  D.  L.  Carroll,  D.D. 
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Alexander,  James  W.,  The  Life  of  Archibald  Alexander,  D.D.,  First 
Professor  in  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton,  N.  J.  New  York, 
Scribners,  1854. 

Anderson,  T.  C,  Life  of  Rev.  George  Donnell,  First  Pastor  of  the  Cumber- 
land P^'esbyterian  Church  in  Lebanon.  With  a  Sketch  of  the  Scotch- 
Irish  Race.     Nashville,  Tenn.,  1859. 

Baird,  Robert,  Alemoir  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Sanford,  Pastor  of  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church,  Philadelphia.      Philadelphia,  Perkins,  1836. 

Beard,  Richard,  Brief  Biographical  Sketches  of  Some  of  the  Early  Minis- 
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Beasley,  Fr.,  A  Brief  Memoir  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Dr.  Samuel  Stan- 
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Birch,  Thomas  Ledlie,  Seemingly  Experimental  Religion,  Instructors  Un- 
experienced, Converters  Unconverted,  Revivals  Killing  Religion,  Alission- 
aries  in  N'eed  of  Teaching ;  or.  War  against  the  Gospel  by  its  Friends. 
Being  the  Examination  and  Rejection  of  Thomas  Ledlie  Birch,  a  Foi'eign 
Ordained  Minister,  by  the  Rev.  Presbytery  of  Ohio,  tinder  the  Very  Rev. 
General  Assembly's  Alien  Act.     Washington,  Pa.,  1806. 

Brown,  Isaac  V.,  Biography  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Finley,  D.D.,  Author  of 
the  American  Colonization  Society.     Philadelphia,  1857. 

Brown,  Matthew,  A  Memoir  of  the  Rev.  Obadiah  Jennings,  D.D.,  of 
N'ashville,  Tenn.     Pittsburg,  1832. 

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Cossitt,  F.  R.,  The  Life  and  Times  of  Rev.  Finis  Ewing,  one  of  the  Fathers 
and  Founders  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Chtirch.  To  which  are 
added  Remarks  on  Dr.  Davidson'' s  History  ;  or,  A  Review  of  his  Chapter 
on  the  Revival  of  1800,  and  his  History  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians. 
Louisville,  1853. 

Dana,  Daniel,  A  Discourse  Preached  on  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Au- 
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Elliott,  David,  Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Porter.  Prefixed 
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Ely,  Ezra  Stiles,  A  Contrast  bet^veen  Calvinism  and  Ilopkinsianism. 
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Humphrey,  Edward  P.,  and  Cleland,  Thomas  H.,  Memoirs  of  the 
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Lacy,  Drury,  An  Account  of  the  Great  Revival  in  Kentucky. 

Lundie,  Mrs.  M.  G.,  Mouoirs  of  the  Life  and  Character  of  the  Rev. 
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McNemar,  Richard,  The  Kentucky  Revival ;  or,  A  Short  History  of  the 
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Mason,  JohnM.,  A  Plea  for  Sacramental  Communion  upon  Catholic  Prin- 
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Lincoln,  W.,  The  History  of  Worcester  from  its  First  Settlement  to  1836. 
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McAllister,  David,  The  National  Reform  Movement:  Its  History  and 
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McClune,  James,  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Forks  of 
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McDermott,  C,  History  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Dayton,  O. 
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3donald,  J.  M 
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Mcllwain,  J.  W.,  Early  Presbytcrianism  in  Maryland.     Baltimore,  1890. 

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MacLean,  Rev.  John,  History  of  the  College  of  Ne^v  Jersey,  from  its  Ori- 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY.  xxvii 

McMaster,  Samuel,  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Rehoboth,  Aid. 

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Vass,  L.  C,  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  New  Berne,  N.  C.  With 
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White,  Erskine  N.,  History  of  the  West  Tiventy-third  Street  Presbyterian 
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Willey,  S.  H.,  Discourse  at  the  Closing  Exercises  of  the  Hozvard  Presbyte- 
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Williams,  J.  L.,  Historical  Sketch  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Fort 
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Williams,  Samuel  Porter,  Historical  Account  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
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XXX  BIBLIOGRAPHY, 

Baird,  Samuel  J.,  A  Collection  of  the  Acts,  Deliverances,  and  Testimonies 
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America  to  the  Present  Time.      Philadelphia,  Presbyterian  Board,  1855. 

Hodge,  diaries,  Discussions  in  Church  Policy.  From  the  Contributions  to 
the  "Princeton  Revieia.''^  Selected  and  Arranged  bv  Rev.  IV.  Durant. 
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Hodge,  J.  Aspinwall,  What  is  Presbyterian  Law  as  Defined  by  the  Chuixh 
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Macieod,  Alexander,  An  Ecclesiastical  Catechism.  New  York,  1807. 
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Miller,  Samuel,  An  Essay  on  the  Wai-rant,  Nature,  and  Duties  of  the 
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Smyth,  Thomas,  Ecclesiastical  Catechism  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
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Reed,  Andrew,  and  Matheson,  James,  Narrative  of  the  Visit  to  the 
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Rupp,  Israel  Daniel,  He  Pasa  Ecclesia  :  An  Original  History  of  the  Re- 
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THE   PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH   IN 
AMERICA. 


CHAPTER   I. 


introduction:  the  historic  antecedents  in  the 
old  world. 

The  group  of  ecclesiastical  bodies  which  constitute  the 
Presbyterian  family  in  America  hold  a  place  of  great  im- 
portance in  the  reHgious  life  of  the  nation.  American 
Presbyterianism  has  been  of  weight  beyond  its  numerical 
strength  through  the  services  it  has  rendered  to  theological 
science,  the  interest  it  has  maintained  in  Christian  doctrine, 
the  high  standard  of  intelligence  it  has  set  up  for  both  its 
ministry  and  its  people,  its  capacity  to  develop  strength  of 
character,  its  superior  family  discipline,  and  its  conserva- 
tive influence  upon  the  national  Hfe.  In  the  sphere  of 
church  organization  it  was  the  pioneer  in  the  creation  of 
that  synodical  type  of  government  which  now  constitutes 
the  actual  poHty  of  nearly  all  our  churches,  even  of  those 
which  hold  to  the  theory  of  congregational  independency 
on  the  one  side,  or  of  diocesan  episcopacy  on  the  other. 

Presbyterianism  claims  to  be  substantially  the  method 
of  church  organization  indicated  in  the  New  Testament. 
It  holds  middle  ground  between  systems  which  eliminate 
the  Christian  people  from  any  direct  share  in  the  control 


2  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

of  church  affairs,  and  those  which  offer  Httle  or  no  safe- 
guard against  popular  prejudice  or  passion.  It  knows  of 
no  higher  work,  and  it  recognizes  no  higher  caUing,  than 
that  of  the  pastor  of  the  Christian  congregation,  in  whom 
it  sees  the  bishop  of  the  first  churches.  Yet  it  also  rec- 
ognizes a  church  whose  extent  transcends  the  Christian 
congregation,  and  takes  shape  in  provincial,  national,  and 
ecumenical  synods,  councils,  or  assemblies,  vested  with 
authority  to  speak  for  the  larger  unities  they  represent. 

The  claims  which  have  been  put  forward,  that  this  order 
of  church  government  was  perpetuated  from  the  days  of 
the'  Apostles  in  the  Scotch  Culdees  or  the  Italian  and 
French  Waldenses,  will  not  stand  the  test  of  historical 
criticism.  The  Culdees  represented  the  strange  tribal 
organization  of  the  Scottish  (i.e.,  Irish)  Church  founded 
by  Patrick — an  organization  as  alien  to  modern  Presbyte- 
rianism  as  it  was  to  medieval  Romanism.  The  Waldenses 
grew  out  of  a  comparatively  recent  protest  against  the 
scholastic  development  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  re- 
ceived from  the  Swiss  Reformers  far  more  than  they  had 
to  impart.  Those  Reformers,  equally  with  Luther  and 
Cranmer,  were  obliged,  in  effecting  the  emancipation  of 
the  Protestant  nations  from  the  usurped  authority  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  to  make  radical  changes  in  the  system 
they  found  in  existence.  All  three  types  of  Protestantism, 
however,  started  from  elements  of  doctrine,  worship,  and 
organization  they  found  already  at  hand,  and  which  they 
found  in  harmony  with  their  reading  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. To  these  they  gave  a  new  weight,  setting  them  in 
a  new  perspective,  but  claiming  to  be  reformers,  and  not 
revolutionists,  as  were  the  Anabaptists.  The  reformers 
of  the  churches  called  Reformed  on  the  Continent,  and 
Presbyterian  in  the  British  Islands,  did  the  work  more 
thoroughly  and  with  less  regard  to  historic  tradition  than 


THE  REFORMED   POLITY.  3 

either  of  the  others.  They  took  as  the  official  unit  the  pas- 
torate exercised  by  the  parisli  priest  of  the  Latin  Church, 
whom  they  accepted  as  bishop  in  the  apostoHc  sense,  and  as 
amply  empowered  to  transmit  his  own  office  by  ordination. 

It  was  in  Geneva,  in  the  days  of  Calvin's  influence,  that 
the  Presbyterian  polity  was  set  up ;  but  it  was  in  northern 
Holland,  under  the  guidance  of  John  a  Lasco,  that  it  was 
developed  beyond  what  was  needed  in  a  city  church  and 
adapted  to  the  use  of  a  nation.  It  became  the  church  gov- 
ernment of  the  French  Huguenots,  of  the  Protestants  of 
Switzerland  and  the  Palatinate,  of  the  Reformed  of  Hesse, 
Brandenburg,  and  other  parts  of  Germany,  and  of  the  na- 
tional churches  of  Holland  and  Scotland.  By  the  earlier 
Puritans  in  the  Church  of  England  it  was  regarded  as  the 
ideal  order  for  a  church.  Dr.  Thomas  Cartwright  of  Cam- 
bridge University  defended  it  as  such  in  1583-84,  and  in 
1588  it  was  set  up  in  secret  in  several  EngUsh  localities, 
but  suppressed  by  Archbishop  Whitgift  in  159 1. 

In  Scotland  the  poHty  established  by  John  Knox  in 
1560,  and  developed  by  Andrew  Melville  in  1578,  was 
hated  by  the  Stuart  dynasty  because  of  its  claim  to  in- 
dependence of  state  control.  James  VI.  found  the  com- 
plaisant episcopacy  of  his  English  kingdom  so  much  more 
to  his  mind  that  in  16 10- 12  he  forced  that  pohty  upon  his 
Scottish  subjects,  and  in  161  7-21  introduced  a  number  of 
Anglican  usages,  which  were  repugnant  to  Scottish  feel- 
ing. The  attempt  of  his  son,  in  1637,  to  supersede  John 
Knox's  Hturgy  by  a  service  book  Hke  that  of  the  Church 
of  England  came  close  upon  the  publication  of  a  Book  of 
Canons,  which  had  established  the  ecclesiastical  supremacy 
of  the  king  and  his  bishops,  and  set  aside  the  synodical  gov- 
ernment of  the  church.  The  two  measures  precipitated  the 
revolt  against  the  Stuart  tyranny,  which  spread  through- 
out the  two  kingdoms,  and  awakened  hopes  of  a  uniform- 


4  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

ity  in  doctrine,  worship,  and  government  in  the  national 
churches  of  both.  The  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines, 
which  was  in  no  sense  a  church  synod,  planned  a  polity 
such  as  *'  the  example  of  the  best  Reformed  Churches " 
suggested.  But  the  revolt  against  the  prelatic  tyranny  of 
Laud  and  his  associates  had  produced  a  restlessness  under 
all  authority,  resulting  in  a  demand  for  the  democratic  in- 
dependency of  the  churches.  This  in  turn  produced  a 
counter-reaction  to  prelacy  as  an  escape  from  anarchy, 
with  the  return  of  the  Stuarts.  In  a  few  localities  the 
poHty  outlined  by  the  Westminster  divines  had  been  set 
up,  but  it  disappeared  entirely  with  the  Restoration,  al- 
though one  section  of  the  English  dissenters  retained  the 
name  Presbyterians,  while  in  fact  they  were  Independents. 
In  Scotland  the  Stuarts  again  set  up  prelacy,  but  with- 
out attempting  to  force  a  Hturgy  upon  the  people.  Their 
tyranny  and  intolerance  made  the  rule  of  their  bishops 
loathsome  to  the  nation,  to  whom  it  was  equally  unnational 
and  unscriptural.  The  revolution  of  1688-90  gave  them 
the  opportunity  to  return  to  a  polity  which  persecution  had 
made  doubly  dear  to  them.  A  small  body  of  the  most 
pronounced  Presbyterians,  especially  in  the  western  parts 
of  the  Lowlands — the  Cameronians  or  Hill  men — refused 
to  accept  this  Revolution  Settlement  as  adequate.  As 
dissenting  from  both  church  and  state,  they  organized 
themselves  into  lay  societies  for  mutual  edification,  until 
in  1706  the  accession  of  Rev.  John  Macmillan  furnished 
them  with  ministry  and  ordinances.  For  a  long  time  they 
erected  no  houses  of  worship,  as  claiming  the  parish 
churches  as  theirs  by  rights;  and  even  after  the  discom- 
forts of  hill-side  services  drove  them  under  roof,  they  con- 
tinued to  observe  the  semi-annual  communions  in  the  open 
air.  A  second  secession  from  the  Kirk  took  place  in  1737, 
and  a  third  in  1752,  consequent  partly  upon  the  introduc- 


THE    ULSTER   PLANTATION.  5 

tlon  of  patronage  into  the  church  in  17 12,  in  violation  both 
of  the  Revolution  Settlement  of  1688,  and  of  the  Treaty  of 
Union  with  England  of  i  707  ;  and  partly  upon  the  grow- 
ing indifference  to  doctrinal  beliefs  under  the  influence  of 
the  eighteenth-century  culture.  The  three  constitute  the 
Reformed  Presbyterian  (or  Covenanter),  the  Associate  (or 
Seceder),  and  the  Relief  Churches.  The  two  former  play 
their  part  in  American  church  history. 

But  it  was  not  directly  from  either  Scotland  or  Eng- 
land that  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  America  received  its 
principal  inflow  of  members,  or  took  its  character  mainly. 
The  forfeiture  of  the  estates  of  the  Earls  of  Tyrone  and  of 
Tyrconnell  in  the  Irish  province  of  Ulster  in  1607  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  crown  a  large  area  of  land  in  the 
north  of  Ireland,  which  was  planted  in  16 10  and  the  years 
following  with  English  but  especially  with  Scotch  settlers, 
the  **  undertakers,"  to  whom  grants  were  made,  being  for- 
bidden to  rent  or  sell  lands  to  the  native  Irish.  Through 
this  and  subsequent  confiscations  and  plantations  of  that 
century,  Ulster  became  a  Scottish  colony  in  the  main, 
four  fifths  of  its  Protestant  people  being  attached  to 
the  Presbyterian  polity,  and  many  of  them  refugees  from 
Scotland  during  *' the  killing  time"  which  followed  the 
Stuart  Restoration.  Yet  the  prelatic  system  was  estab- 
lished throughout  all  Ireland,  Presbyterians  and  Catholics 
being  forced  to  pay  for  the  support  of  the  English  Church 
system,  and  being  subjected  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bish- 
ops' courts  in  all  matters  relating  to  wills,  marriages,  and 
divorces.  And  while  the  Presbyterian  colonists  never  were 
subjected  to  the  atrocity  of  the  penal  laws  against  the 
Catholic  natives,  and,  after  the  Revolution,  were  permitted 
the  exercise  of  their  worship  and  of  their  church  govern- 
ment, they  were  still  excluded  from  oflice,  including  Par- 
liament, required  to  have  their  marriages  solemnized  by 


6  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

Anglican  ministers,  and  otherwise  ill-treated  and  insulted. 
This,  along  with  the  breaches  of  contract  on  the  part  of  the 
Irish  landlords,  drove  them  to  America  in  such  numbers 
as  both  depleted  the  Ulster  colony  and  greatly  strength- 
ened those  of  America.  To  this  Scotch-Irish  immigration 
was  due  the  firm  establishment  and  rapid  growth  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  colonial  period  of  American 
history. 

From  this  rapid  historical  sketch  I  pass  to  some  of  the 
distinctive  features  of  the  Reformed  Church.  Its;,  polity 
was  by  no  means  its  most  noteworthy  characteristic.  Tak- 
ing an  impress  from  the  strong,  logical  intellect  of  John 
Calvin,  it  always  has  put  theological  doctrine  into  its  fore- 
ground. It  has  laid  a  stress  upon  doctrinal  soundness  as 
an  element  of  wholesome  church  life,  which  differentiates 
it  from  both  Lutheran  and  Anglican  Protestantism.  Its 
weaker  side,  in  this  respect,  has  been  an  over-confidence 
in  the  adequacy  of  human  logic  to  bring  the  truth  of  the 
Scriptures  into  a  systematic  form,  and  to  present  it  in  a 
coherent  sequence  which  the  Bible  does  not  seek  to  fur- 
nish. This  tendency  naturally  reached  its  culmination  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  the  scholastic  middle  age  of  Prot- 
estant history.  From  the  meeting  of  the  Synod  of  Dort 
in  1618  till  the  drafting  of  the  Helvetic  Consensus  in  1675, 
the  Reformed  Church  of  Europe  passed  through  a  devel- 
opment of  theological  definition,  whose  confessions  of  the- 
ology, through  their  increasing  stringency,  stand  in  sharp 
contrast  to  the  freer,  more  popular,  and  more  devout  con- 
fessions of  faith  of  the  century  of  the  Reformation.  The 
Confession  and  Catechisms  drafted  by  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  and  accepted  afterward  as  the  standards  of 
Presbyterian  orthodoxy  in  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Amer- 
ica, surpassed  in  systematic  elaborateness  and  logical  pre- 
cision nearly  every  other  Protestant  symbol.     Their  sub- 


AGREEMENT  AMONG    THE    CHURCHES.  7 

stitution  by  the  Scotch  Assembly  of  1648  for  John  Knox's 
spirited  Scottish  Confession  of  1562  was  in  the  vain  hope 
of  attaining  ecclesiastical  uniformity  with  England.  It 
had  the  effect  of  carrying  the  requirement  of  theological 
agreement  to  niceties  not  before  prescribed. 

When  the  teaching  of  the  Reformed  Church,  in  the 
age  before  the  Synod  of  Dort,  was  called  Calvinism,  the 
reference  was  not  to  its  view  of  predestination,  but  to  its 
teaching  as  to  the  sacraments.  In  that  era  there  was  a 
substantial  agreement  among  the  Protestant  churches  in 
accepting  the  Augustinian  view  that  man's  will  is  in  bond- 
age through  sin,  and  must  be  set  free  by  divine  grace. 
This  is  asserted  against  the  more  than  half  Pelagianism  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  by  Luther  in  his  controversy  with 
Erasmus  (1524—26),  and  by  the  Lutheran  divines  who  com- 
piled the  ''Formula  of  Concord"  (1579),  no  less  than  by 
Calvin  or  by  Knox.  Indeed,  Knox  probably  would  have 
shrunk  from  the  extreme  statements  of  the  Lambeth 
Articles,  drafted  in  1579  by  Archbishop  Whitgift  and  four 
other  Anglican  divines,  formally  approved  by  Archbishop 
Hutton  of  York,  and  incorporated  by  Archbishop  Ussher 
into  the  Articles  of  the  Established  Church  of  Ireland. 
It  is  therefore  a  mistake  to  give  Calvin's  name  to  teach- 
ing he  shared  with  Augustine  and  Aquinas,  Luther  and 
Andrea,  Cranmer  and  Whitgift;  and  the  mistake  has  been 
possible  only  because  the  Reformed  Church  adhered  to  the 
Augustinian  teaching,  while  the  Lutheran  and  Anglican 
Churches,  in  spite  of  their  own  formulas,  have  approxi- 
mated to  that  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  •/ 

With  the  exception  of  the  school  of  Zwingli,  which  soon 
ceased  to  exert  an  appreciable  influence,  the  Reformed 
theologians  held  to  the  objective  reality  of  sacramental 
grace,  but  expressed  this  in  terms  which  placed  the  asser- 
tion of  it  on  Protestant  ground.      They  recognized  a  gift  of 


8  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  1. 

regenerating  grace  in  baptism,  bestowed  even  upon  the 
unconscious  child,  while  they  maintained  that  his  member- 
ship in  the  church  was  his  birthright  as  a  child  of  Christian 
parentage.  Following  the  Old  Testament  analogy,  they 
taught  that  the  children  of  Christians  are  "  born  within  the 
covenant,"  and  are  baptized  because  this  natural  descent 
is  accompanied  by  spiritual  privilege.  And  when  such 
children  had  come  to  years  of  discretion,  and  had  been 
taught  catechetically  the  ''  saving  knowledge  "  of  the  gos- 
pel, if  their  lives  were  free  from  reproach,  the  Reformed 
Church  acknowledged  their  right  to  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  In  this  also  it  saw  no  *'  bare  and  empty 
sign,"  but  an  appointed  channel  of  grace,  through  the 
presence  in  it  of  the  divine-human  person  of  our  Lord  to 
the  faith  of  those  who  worthily  participate.  This  presence, 
however,  is  in  the  ordinance,  and  not  "  in,  with,  or  under  " 
the  elements — a  gift  of  grace  received  by  faith,  not  by 
the  mouth,  and  by  the  believing  communicant  alone.  It  is 
this  which  is  Calvinism,  in  the  historic  sense  of  the  term. 

In  its  forms  of  worship  the  Reformed  Church  was  litur- 
gic,  yet  with  a  striving  after  simplicity  and  an  indiffer- 
ence to  the  older  liturgic  traditions,  which  distinguishes  it 
from  both  the  Lutheran  and  the  Anglican.  In  Hesse  it 
approached  its  sister-churches  most  nearly  in  these  things, 
w^hile  in  other  parts  of  Germany,  in  Switzerland,  France, 
Holland,  Scotland,  and  Ulster,  the  divergence  was  wide. 
As  we  have  seen,  it  was  the  attempt  to  force  elaborate 
Anglican  forms  on  the  Scottish  Kirk  which  proved  '*  the 
last  straw"  in  the  burden  the  Stuarts  were  laying  upon 
Scotland.  By  a  natural  tendency  this  Reformed  love  of 
simplicity,  by  force  of  opposition,  became  a  Puritan  indif- 
ference to  form ;  and  the  Westminster  Assembly  found 
no  difficulty  in  setting  aside  all  prescribed  forms,  includ- 
ing John  Knox's  *'  Book  of  Common  Order,"  and  substi- 


THE   REFORMED   DISCIPLINE.  g 

tuting  the  general  directions  of  the  Directory  for  Wor- 
ship, with  merely  exemplary  forms,  which  fell  into  desue- 
tude. 

In  contrast  to  this  informality  of  the  church's  prayers 
was  the  strictness  of  prescription  in  the  matter  of  praise. 
The  Psalms  in  metrical  versions  were  the  handbook  of  every 
national  church  of  the  Reformed  faith,  from  Warsaw  to 
Rochelle,  and  from  Geneva  to  Edinburgh,  and  through 
Puritan  influence  they  attained  the  same  use  in  the  Angli- 
can Church,  while  the  Lutherans  were  the  hymn-writers 
and  hymn-singers  of  earlier  Protestantism.  As  the  Re- 
formed psalters  supplemented  the  Psalms  with  metrical  ver- 
sions of  other  passages  of  Scripture,  and  even  with  metrical 
doxologies  and  a  few  hymns,  it  cannot  be  said  that  the 
exclusive  use  of  the  Book  of  Psalms  was  a  principle  the}^ 
accepted. 

The  most  characteristic  element  in  the  life  of  the  Re-" 
formed  Church,  and  that  by  which  it  influenced  European 
history  the  most  profoundly,  was  neither  its  polity,  nor  its 
type  of  doctrine,  nor  its  forms  of  worship,  but  its  ethical 
and  social  discipline.  Under  John  Calvin's  rule  Geneva 
became  one  of  the  world's  wonders — a  city  in  which  all 
that  Savonarola  had  dreamed  and  hoped  for  Florence  was 
actually  realized.  In  Geneva  Christian  living  was  the  first 
concern  of  laws  and  of  magistracy.  Offenses  against  the 
moral  law  of  God  w^ere  treated  as  crimes,  and  the  Chris- 
tian conception  of  duty  was  assumed  as  part  of  the  public 
policy.  The  impression  of  Calvin's  influence  on  the  city 
was  lasting  as  well  as  deep.  Even  Lutherans,  like  John 
Valentine  Andrea  (1614)  and  Philip  Jakob  Spener  (1660), 
came  back  from  a  visit  to  Geneva  with  a  lofty  envy  of  the 
orderliness,  the  moral  correctness,  the  show  of  reverence 
for  sacred  things,  and  the  deference  to  authority,  which 
still  characterized  the  city  by  Lake  Leman. 


10  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

We  now  see  the  imperfection  of  Calvin's  method,  and 
therefore  of  his  achievement.  We  draw  the  hne  of  dis- 
crimination between  sins  and  crimes,  as  that  age  did  not. 
We  see  in  the  Genevan  administration  an  extension  of 
legal  methods  into  a  province  where  they  have  no  fitness, 
and  which  must  provoke  a  reaction.  Our  Reformed  fathers 
made  nothing  of  such  distinctions.  They  accepted,  with 
hearty  enthusiasm,  the  Genevan  ideal  of  a  community 
binding  upon  itself  the  law  of  God,  entering  into  cove- 
nant with  him  for  the  consecration  of  public  and  social  life 
to  his  glory,  and  aiming  at  the  immediate  realization  of  his 
kingdom  through  the  repression  of  all  base  and  unchris- 
tian habits  and  instincts  by  the  whole  weight  of  collec- 
tive authority.  It  was  this  that  fired  the  imaginations  and 
strengthened  the  wills  of  the  great  reformers  and  states- 
men of  the  Reformed  faith :  of  William  the  Silent  and 
Admiral  CoHgny,  of  Latimer  and  Knox,  of  Marnix  de 
Aldegonde  and  Agrippa  d'Aubigne.  It  was  this  purpose 
to  establish  the  direct  rule  of  God  upon  earth — a  theocracy 
in  the  true  sense — that  found  expression  in  the  poetry  of 
Edmund  Spenser  and  John  Milton,  and  that  sent  the  Pil- 
grims and  the  Puritans  across  the  ocean  to  seek  a  freer 
field  for  its  reahzation.  It  was  this  that  plunged  Presby- 
terian Scotland  and  Puritan  England  into  the  struggle  with 
the  Stuarts,  against  whose  low  and  demoralizing  influence 
Milton  directed  the  scorn  of  his  "  Comus."  This  theocratic 
ideal  played  a  primary  part  in  the  public  life  of  Europe  in 
the  great  struggle  with  the  Counter-Reformation. 

In  Scotland  the  Genevan  ideal  was  embraced  with  a 
fervor  that  might  have  been  expected  from  the  mixture 
of  Celtic  and  Scandinavian  in  the  nation's  make-up.  In 
Wordsworth's  phrase, 

The  Scottish  Church  .   .   .   had  held 
-^  The  strong  hand  of  her  purity 


A    COVENANTED  NATION.  i\ 

Upon  a  nation  in  whom  willfulness  and  lawlessness  had 
been  fostered  by  centuries,  and  whose  worst  vices  had 
had  the  sanction  of  the  example  of  the  ecclesiastics  high- 
est in  place.  Through  defeat  and  through  victory,  through 
periods  of  popular  support  and  times  of  royal  or  aristo- 
cratic antagonism,  the  Knoxes,  the  Melvilles,  the  Bruces, 
the  Hendersons,  the  Guthries,  and  the  Rutherfords  of  the 
Kirk  labored  to  make  their  Scotland  a  holy  nation,  a  peo- 
ple in  covenant  with  their  God.  The  continuous  pressure 
of  session  and  presbytery,  synod  and  assembly,  was  exerted 
for  the  extirpation  of  vice,  and  the  elevation  of  social  life 
to  the  level  of  their  own  spiritual  vision.  At  times,  indeed, 
this  was  employed  against  usages  we  have  learned  to  regard 
as  innocent ;  at  others  it  was  intruded  into  a  political  sphere 
in  which  it  had  no  proper  exercise.  On  the  whole,  how- 
ever, the  Kirk's  claim  "  to  treat  in  an  ecclesiastical  way  of 
greatest  and  smallest  matters,  from  the  king's  throne,  that 
should  be  established  in  righteousness,  to  the  merchant's 
balance,  that  should  be  used  in  faithfulness,"  was  not  only 
recognized  in  fact,  but  was  directed  to  the  best  interests 
of  the  nation.  It  was  this  discipline  which  created  those 
cottage  homes,  which  Burns  has  immortalized  in  his  most 
gracious  verse,  and  of  which  Wordsworth  writes : 

A  virtuous  household,  though  exceeding  poor! 
Pure  livers  were  they  all,  austere  and  grave, 
And  fearing  God :   the  very  children  taught 
Stern  self-respect,  a  reverence  for  God's  Word, 
And  an  habitual  piety,  maintained 
With  strictness  scarely  known  on  English  ground. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  in  later  times  if  the  people  com- 
plained of  the  Kirk,  or  withdrew  from  her  communion,  it 
always  was  because  she  fell  short  of  the  theocratic  vigor 
and  rigor  they  had  learned  to  demand  of  her.  In  their 
hearts  the  nation  knew  that  it  was  just  their  faithfulness 


12  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  I. 

to  the  ideal  of  Knox  and  of  Henderson  which  made  them 
a  great  people — a  people  capable  of  binding  on  itself 
the  yoke  of  service  and  of  self-denial,  and  of  foregoing 
the  satisfactions  and  enjoyments  of  the  present  for  some 
greater  good. 

In  the  Reformed,  as  distinguished  from  the  Anabaptist 
and  Independent  conception,  the  proper  subjects  of  such 
a  discipline  are  a  whole  nation  embracing  the  faith  and 
order  of  the  gospel  by  their  collective  act.  Accepting 
''  the  judgment  of  charity,"  they  took  for  granted  the 
Christian  standing  and  character  of  all  who  had  been  born 
and  brought  up  in  such  a  nation,  and  taught  the  truths  and 
subjected  to  the  discipline  of  the  gospel,  and  kept  by  God's 
grace  from  profaning  the  Christian  name  by  any  scandal. 
Such  they  accepted  as  entitled  to  the  ordinances  of  the 
church,  for  both  themselves  and  their  children.  In  prac- 
tice, however,  they  treated  this  as  merely  the  minimum  of 
a  Christian  profession,  and  urged  upon  all  to  ^*  go  on  to 
perfection." 

The  daughter-church  in  Ulster  preserved  in  great  meas- 
ure the  theological  and  theocratic  character  of  the  Scottish 
Kirk.  Its  social  position,  however,  was  very  different,  and 
its  environment  reacted  upon  its  character.  Its  Presby- 
terianism  was  not  the  creed  and  order  of  a  whole  people. 
It  must  recognize  as  in  its  membership  only  those  who 
gave  it  their  voluntary  adherence,  in  the  face  of  legal  pro- 
scriptions and  of  the  attractions  of  the  Anglican  estab- 
lishment, and  even  of  Irish  Romanism.  This  made  it  less 
theocratic  in  itself,  and  caused  a  less  theocratic  tone  in 
the  preponderant  influence  Ulster  exercised  upon  the  Pres- 
byterianism  of  America. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   DAY    OF    SMALL   THINGS,   1629-1713. 

In  view  of  the  extensive  acceptance  of  the  Presbyterian 
theory  of  church  order  in  the  British  Islands,  it  is  surpris- 
ing that  so  long  a  period  elapsed  before  it  took  root  in 
any  of  the  British  colonies  in  America.  Up  to  the  time  of 
Cromwell's  accession  to  power,  and  even  after  that  event, 
the  central  and  probably  the  largest  body  of  the  English 
Puritans  were  Presbyterians,  with  moderate  Episcopalians 
like  Ussher  and  Reynolds  forming  the  right  wing,  while 
Independents  and  Baptists  were  the  left.  While  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers,  who  settled  the  Plymouth  colony,  were  In- 
dependents on  principle,  the  Puritans  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  colony  were  largely  Presbyterians  in  theory  before 
their  emigration.  But  the  suppression  of  the  attempts  to 
set  up  the  Genevan  order  in  England  in  1591  through  the 
hostility  of  Archbishop  Whitgift,  and  its  partial  suspen- 
sion in  Scotland  by  the  Compromise  of  1586,  and  by  the 
Articles  of  Perth  in  16 18,  had  prevented  any  practical 
application  of  Presbyterian  principles  within  Great  Britain. 
It  was  merely  a  theory,  and  in  the  case  of  the  English  Puri- 
tans it  was  subject  to  the  influence  of  that  general  tendency 
to  pure  individualism  which  dominated  the  whole  Puritan 
movement.  From  Anglican  to  Presbyterian,  from  that  to 
Independent,  and  from  that  to  Baptist,  ending  often  in 
Seekerism  or  Quakerism,  is  the  gamut  through  which  the 
active  spirits  of  the  time  easily  ran. 

13 


14  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

In  laying  the  foundations  of  church  order  in  the  absence 
of  precedence  and  traditions,  and  not  uninfluenced  by  the 
proximity  of  the  pronounced  Independents  of  Plymouth, 
the  Puritans  of  New  England  drifted  into  arrangements 
which  were  midway  between  Presbyterianism  and  Inde- 
pendency, with  a  strong  leaning  toward  the  latter.  Not 
that  there  was  no  resistance  to  this.  "  The  New  England 
way,"  as  it  was  called,  excited  some  sharp  criticism  among 
the  Puritan  divines  in  England,  and  in  1637-39  there  was 
a  prolonged  correspondence  between  them  arid  their  breth- 
ren on  the  subject,  not  entirely  to  their  satisfaction.  But 
the  two  tendencies  struggled  for  the  mastery  for  nearly 
seventy  years,  the  Presbyterian  finding  able  supporters  in 
John  Eliot  (**  The  Divine  Ordinance  of  Councils,"  1665) 
and  the  Mathers.  Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter  felicitously  describes 
''  the  New  England  way  "as  '*  a  Congregationalized  Pres- 
byterianism "  which  **  had  its  roots  in  one  system  and  its 
branches  in  another,"  and  says  that  the  Massachusetts 
churches  differed  locally  ''  from  the  almost  Presbyterian- 
ism of  Hingham  and  Newbury[port]  "  to  the  pronounced 
Independency  of  Plymouth.  But  he  is  not  so  happy  in 
his  statement  that  the  system  was  "  essentially  Genevan 
within  the  local  congregation,  and  essentially  other  out- 
side it."  The  absence  of  regularly  constituted  sessions 
for  the  administration  of  church  discipline,  and  the  refusal 
of  baptism  to  the  children  of  baptized  persons  who  were 
not  communicants,  marked  the  local  congregation  as  un- 
Presbyterian.  The  latter  rule  was  a  rejection  of  the  ''  judg- 
ment of  charity"  accepted  by  all  the  Reformed  churches. 
It  was  one  of  the  moot-points  between  the  two  parties  in 
the  Westminster  Assembly,  and  in  1662  the  severer  rule 
had  to  be  relaxed  even  in  New  England  by  the  Half-Way 
Covenant.  On  the  other  hand,  the  high  authority  claimed 
and  exercised  by  synods  called  by  the  civil  magistrate,  of 


''THE  NEW  ENGLAND    WAY:'  1 5 

which  six  met  during  the  seventeenth  century,  shows  that, 
even  outside  the  local  congregation,  **  the  New  England 
way"  was  not  so  entirely  other  than  Genevan.  We  hear 
of  no  more  such  synods  when  the  Congregational  principle 
had  attained  supremacy  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  church 
order  had  taken  the  shape  indicated  in  the  writings  of  Rev. 
John  Wise  (''The  Churches'  Quarrell  Espoused,"  1710), 
who  completed  what  John  Cotton  and  his  associates  had 
begun. 

In  the  sister-colony  of  Connecticut  the  movement  was 
in  the  opposite  direction.  The  Saybrook  Platform  (1708) 
gave  jurisdiction  over  the  local  churches  to  the  consocia- 
tions consisting  of  the  ministers  and  the  ''  messengers  of 
the  churches  "  in  an  assigned  district.  Under  its  opera- 
tion the  churches  of  Connecticut  grew  more  conscious  of 
their  relation  to  the  Presbyterianism  of  the  Middle  States 
than  to  the  CongregationaHsm  of  Massachusetts,  and  they 
freely  used  the  name  Presbyterian  as  the  briefest  descrip- 
tion of  their  ecclesiastical  position. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  shall  see  that  the  Congregation- 
alism of  Massachusetts  and  the  States  north  of  it  proved 
itself  strong  enough  to  absorb  and  assimilate  an  Ulster 
immigration,  which  came  with  the  purpose  of  establishing 
the  Scottish  order  on  New  England  soil. 

From  1640  onward  we  find  a  certain  amount  of  migra- 
tion from  New  England  into  the  Dutch  settlements  on 
Long  Island  and  the  mainland.  Mostly  this  was  Congre- 
gationalist,  but  two  of  the  ministers  who  made  this  trans- 
fer— Francis  Doughty  to  Long  Island  in  1642,  and  thence 
to  New  Amsterdam  the  next  year,  and  Richard  Denton 
to  Long  Island  in  1643 — were  distinctly  Presbyterians. 
They  both  had  trouble  with  their  Congregationalist  neigh- 
bors as  to  the  extent  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant  in  the 
matter  of  baptizing  the  children  of  those  who  were  not 


1 5  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

communicants.  Both  were  welcome  to  the  Dutch,  who 
adhered  stoutly  and  somewhat  intolerantly  to  their  Re- 
formed faith  and  order.  And  in  New  York  the  atmosphere 
tended  to  make  the  transformation  of  Puritan  into  Presby- 
terian an  easy  one,  as  the  subsequent  history  will  show. 

The  Scotch  never  have  been  a  colonizing  people,  the 
settlement  of  the  Irish  province  of  Ulster  in  the  reign  of 
James  I.  being  their  only  national  achievement  of  that  kind. 
Up  to  their  ill-fated  experiment  at  Darien  (1698)  they 
made  no  large  effort  at  establishing  a  colony  in  the  New 
World.  In  South  Carohna,  Maryland,  and  East  Jersey 
were  small  bodies  of  Scotch  immigrants  who  sought  a 
home  in  America  during  the  rehgious  troubles  of  the 
period  between  the  Restoration  and  the  Revolution,  the 
first  having  been  deported  after  the  defeat  at  Bothwell 
Brig  (1684)  by  way  of  punishment.  Both  their  deportation 
and  the  Darien  failure  did  so  far  contribute  to  the  Presby- 
terian element  in  the  colonies,  that  in  South  Carolina  Pres- 
byterian churches  grew  up,  and  a  Presbytery  was  organized 
in  1722-23,  but  partly  of  New  England  Puritans. 

The  Scotch- Irish  colony  in  Ulster  far  exceeded  the 
mother-country  in  colonizing  energy.  Large  sections  of 
that  province  had  been  granted  by  James  I.  to  royal  favor- 
ites in  Scotland,  who  held  out  great  inducements  to  their 
countrymen  to  become  their  tenants  in  Ireland.  Unfortu- 
nately, these  pledges  had  not  the  force  of  a  law,  and  were 
generally  broken.  Besides  this,  as  the  century  advanced, 
and  the  prelatizing  policy  of  the  Stuarts  became  pro- 
nounced, the  religious  difficulty  became  more  acute.  As 
early  as  1636  a  ship-load  of  the  Scotch  of  Ulster  set  sail 
for  New  England,  having  been  invited  by  the  authorities 
of  that  province  to  settle  on  the  Merrimac  River.  The 
ministers  on  board  were  Robert  Blair  and  John  Livingston, 
who  both  were  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  impending 


PRESBYTERIANS  IN  MARYLAND.  17 

troubles  in  Scotland.  The  ship  was  driven  back  by  con- 
trary winds,  and  the  undertaking  abandoned. 

After  the  Restoration  the  Irish  Presbyterians  felt  the 
weight  of  prelatic  intolerance  only  less  than  did  their 
Scotch  brethren.  Even  Jeremy  Taylor,  now  an  Ulster 
bishop,  retracted  the  bold  arguments  of  his  **  Liberty  of 
Prophesying"  (1647),  ^^^^  both  defended  and  practiced 
the  persecution  of  the  Scotch  colonists  for  nonconformity 
to  the  established  church.  So  before  a  decade  elapsed 
emigration  set  in  from  Ulster  to  America,  seeking  the 
Barbadoes,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  as  their  new  homes. 
To  Maryland,  indeed,  Francis  Doughty  had  come  from 
New  Amsterdam  as  early  as  1659,  his  brother-in-law  Cap- 
tain William  Stone  having  been  made  governor  of  the 
colony  by  the  Calverts,  as  a  safeguard  against  interfer- 
ence on  the  part  of  the  Commonwealth  government  at 
home.  We  hear  of  Doughty  as  preaching  on  both  sides 
of  the  Potomac,  but  there  is  no  record  of  his  death,  or 
of  any  permanent  result  of  his  labors.  To  Maryland  also 
Fifeshire  colonists  had  been  brought  by  Captain  Vivian 
Beale  to  escape  the  persecution  in  Scotland. 

With  the  first  immigration  of  the  Scotch- Irish  it  may 
be  said  that  Presbyterianism  had  come  to  stay.  Prelatic 
intolerance  in  Ireland  had  had  the  natural  effect  of  intensi- 
fying their  attachment  to  their  own  church  and  its  order. 
The  tenacity  of  will  for  which  they  always  have  been 
famous  came  into  play  in  planting  the  Presbyterian  order 
and  doctrine  in  a  new  environment.  As  but  one  minister, 
probably  Richard  Salwey  by  name,  shared  in  the  earlier 
migration,  they  were  indebted  to  the  ministrations  of  an 
English  Presbyterian,  Matthew  Hill,  who  had  been  induced 
by  Richard  Baxter  to  make  his  home  in  Maryland.  In  1669 
he  writes  to  Baxter:  '*  We  have  many  of  the  Reformed 
religion,  who  have  a  long  while  lived  as  sheep  without  a 


1 8  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

shepherd,  though  last  year  brought  in  a  young  man  from 
Ireland,  who  hath  already  had  good  success  in  his  work. 
We  have  room  for  more  ministers."  In  1680  the  Scotch- 
Irish  in  the  colony  applied  to  the  Irish  Presbytery  of  Lag- 
gan  for  another  minister.  The  arrest  and  deportation  of 
the  members  of  that  Presbytery  for  keeping  a  public  fast 
prevented  a  response  in  the  ordinary  fashion,  but  prob- 
ably was  the  means  of  sending  to  Maryland  its  former 
moderator,  William  Traill,  in  1682,  and  Francis  Makemie 
in  1683. 

It  is  to  Francis  Makemie  rather  than  to  Matthew  Hill 
or  William  Traill  that  the  American  Presbyterian  Church 
has  been  accustomed  to  look  back  as  to  her  founder.  The 
others  preceded  him  and  were  men  of  abihty.  But  Wil- 
liam Traill  returned  to  Scotland  at  the  Revolution,  and 
Makemie  was  the  more  energetic  nature.  His  ordination 
seems  to  have  been  among  the  last  acts  of  the  Presbytery 
of  Laggan  before  its  dispersion  by  official  violence.  In 
America  at  first  he  went  to  and  fro  as  an  evangelist,  rang- 
ing from  South  Carolina  to  New  York,  combining  com- 
merce with  preaching,  and  making  Rehoboth,  on  the  east- 
ern shore  of  Maryland,  the  center  of  his  labors  at  least  as 
early  as  1691.  He  came  forward  as  the  literary  champion 
of  his  church  when  it  was  attacked  by  either  Quakers  or 
prelatists.  In  New  York,  on  the  ground  preempted  by 
Doughty  and  Denton,  he  suffered  arrest  and  impris'onment 
in  I  706  for  the  offense  of  preaching  without  a  license,  as 
the  Episcopal  Church  had  been  established  in  that  colony 
by  a  legislative  trick  in  1693,  ^^^  Governor  Cornbury, 
the  Queen's  cousin,  was  ruling  the  people  after  the  Stuart 
fashion  in  the  matter  of  suppressing  dissent.  Makemie's 
vigorous  defense  and  acquittal  in  the  next  year  fixed  atten- 
tion on  Cornbury's  conduct,  and  thus  contributed  to  his 
recall  in  1 709. 


THE  FIRST  PRESBYTERY.  1 9 

Altogether,  Francis  Makemie,  although  not  a  man  of 
the  first  order,  and  unable  to  stand  comparison  with  many 
of  the  later  leaders  of  the  church  he  "  founded,"  was  a  per- 
son of  such  vitality  and  energy,  such  excellent  judgment 
and  genuine  piety,  as  made  him  greatly  useful  in  his  day, 
and  entitles  him  to  the  gratitude  of  all  who  believe  that 
Presbyterianism  has  been  of  eminent  service  in  the  religious 
life  of  the  nation. 

Up  to  this  time,  while  there  had  been  separate  congrega- 
tions of  Presbyterian  structure,  no  Presbytery  had  ever  met 
to  exercise  control  over  their  governing  sessions.  Some 
kind  of  informal  conference  or  council  must  have  been 
held  in  1701,  when  Jedediah  Andrews  was  ordained  to  the 
pastorate  in  Philadelphia.  "  The  Presbyterians,"  writes 
Rev.  John  Talbot,  missionary  of  the  S.  P.  G.,  **  have  come 
a  great  way  to  lay  hands  on  each  other."  In  1705,  pre- 
sumably in  the  same  young  and  growing  city,  a  regular 
Presbytery  met,  and  chose  Francis  Makemie  to  the  mod- 
eratorship.  Five  other  ministers  were  enrolled  as  mem^bers. 
Philadelphia  was  the  most  northern  point  represented,  until 
the  ordination  of  John  Boyd  as  pastor  at  Freehold,  in  the 
year  following.  The  other  churches  lay  in  Delaware  and 
Maryland,  Snow  Hill  in  the  latter  State  being  probably  the 
oldest  in  date  of  organization. 

From  1705  until  17 16  inclusive,  the  Presbytery  of  Phila- 
delphia was  the  only  judicature  of  the  church,  and  in  the 
twelve  years  it  had  increased  from  five  to  seventeen  minis- 
ters, chiefly  by  arrivals  from  New  England  and  the  Brit- 
ish Islands.  From  Philadelphia  northward  to  Long  Island, 
the  pastors  were  generally  from  Old  or  New  England ;  in 
Maryland,  either  Scotch  or  Irish;  while  Delaware  was  the 
meeting-ground  of  the  two  elements. 

As  the  church  of  the  new  immigration  it  had  great  diffi- 
culties to  encounter.      The  people  were  extremely  poor, 


20  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

and  sparsely  settled ;  and  in  their  disheartening  battle 
for  the  conquest  of  nature,  they  tended  to  sink  into  mere 
animalism  through  the  neglect  of  spiritual  interests.  The 
supply  of  ministers  was  far  below  the  need,  and  there  was 
a  temptation  to  accept  as  such  men  poorly  fitted  in  point 
of  learning  or  of  character.  But  the  Presbytery  exacted 
adequate  credentials  and  assurance  of  orthodoxy  and  good 
character  from  all  applicants.  When  a  young  Welshman 
in  I  710  undertook  to  preach  to  the  people  of  the  Welsh 
Tract  without  a  license,  he  was  rebuked,  and  required  to 
place  himself  under  competent  direction  that  he  might  be 
educated  for  the  sacred  office;  and  it  was  not  until  171 5 
that  he  was  ordained.  The  number  of  cases  of  discipline 
for  moral  offenses  was  excessive  among  both  ministers  and 
people  ;  and  to  these  were  added  disputes  and  uncertainties 
as  to  the  degrees  within  which  marriage  was  forbidden,  as 
might  be  expected  in  small  and  isolated  settlements,  where 
the  range  of  choice  was  very  limited. 

The  forms  of  Presbyterian  government  used  in  Scotland 
and  Ireland  were  followed  as  far  as  possible.  There  was 
some  difficulty  in  bringing  the  Welsh  and  English  Con- 
gregationalists,  who  had  united  with  Presbytery,  to  see 
the  expediency  of  the  authority  exercised  over  the  sev- 
eral congregations.  They  generally  acquiesced,  however, 
in  accepting  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  the  representative 
of  the  Puritan  principle  in  the  Middle  States.  The  fervor 
of  the  earlier  strife  over  the  two  methods  of  church  gov- 
ernment had  died  out  on  both  sides,  probably  through 
exhaustion.  They  were  united  against  prelacy,  tolerant 
of  each  other. 

Nothing,  indeed,  could  be  more  friendly  than  the  rela- 
tions of  the  Presbytery  to  the  New  England  churches.  It 
was  in  correspondence  with  the  union  of  the  Presbyterians 
and  Congregationalists  of  London,  asking  for  additional 


HARMONY   WITH  NEW  ENGLAND.  21 

ministers.  It  had  a  friend  and  adviser  in  the  indefatigable 
Cotton  Mather,  who  worked  for  its  growth  and  prosperity, 
as  he  was  working  vainly  for  the  estabHshment  of  a  some- 
what similar  plan  of  government  in  Massachusetts.  In  the 
ministers  and  churches  of  Connecticut,  newly  reorganized 
on  the  Saybrook  Platform,  it  had  helpful  and  sympathetic 
neighbors.  Indeed,  there  was  no  sharp  line  of  sectarian 
severance  between  the  two  bodies  until  the  present  century. 


CHAPTER    III. 

GROWTH    AND    DISSENSION,   1713-41. 

Of  the  Scotch  colony  planted  in  Ulster  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  there  are  probably  three  descendants  in 
America  for  one  left  at  home.  Disappointed  in  the  ex- 
pectations raised  by  the  offers  of  the  new  landlords  at  th^ 
time  of  the  plantation,  and  oppressed  by  the  established 
Episcopal  Church,  they  turned  their  eyes  to  America  as 
a  possible  home.  Of  their  first  immigration,  that  to  Mary- 
land in  the  seventeenth  century,  I  have  spoken  already.  The 
J  .second  began  in  1713,  and  continued  until  the  eve  of  the 
War  for  Independence.  It  entered  the  colonies  on  three 
lines.  The  first  followed  the  course  originally  proposed 
by  Robert  Blair  and  John  Livingston  in  1636,  and  sought 
New  England.  It  was  spread  over  a  large  part  of  Maine 
and  several  districts  of  New  Hampshire ;  and  it  also  found 
a  home  in  the  larger  towns  of  Massachusetts,  especially 
Boston,  Worcester,  and  Pelham.  Those  who  see  nothing 
in  the  New  England  history  but  the  doings  of  Puritans  and 
Pilgrims  ignore  a  large  indebtedness  to  this  strenuous  and 
vertebrate  stock,  from  which  sprang  herWebsters,  Greeleys, 
Greys,  Starks,  Andersons,  and  others  who  hold  no  mean 
place  in.  her  annals. 

At  first  the  new  immigrants  were  anything  but  wel- 
come. They  were  ''a  parcel  of  Irish,"  and  that  of  itself 
carried  with  it  an  idea  of  wildness.  Their  intense  Presby- 
terianism  was  supposed  to  imperil  the  **  standing  order  " 
of  the  New  England  churches.      In  i  718-19  we  find  the 

22 


THE    GREAT  IMMIGRATION. 


23 


selectmen  of  Boston  taking  measures  to  clear  the  town  of 
these  '*  passengers  lately  arrived  from  Ireland,"  and  warn- 
ing them  to  depart.  It  was  not  until  1730  that  they  were 
able  to  gather  a  church,  under  the  pastorate  of  John  Moore- 
head.  When  those  who  had  settled  in  Worcester,  in  171 8, 
took  measures  to  build  themselves  a  church,  the  people 
**  gathered  by  night,  hewed  down  and  demolished  the 
structure,"  and  "  persons  of  consideration  and  respectabil- 
ity aided  in  the  riotous  work,"  we  are  told  in  W.  Lincoln's 
"  History  of  Worcester  "  (1837).  This  intolerance  caused 
the  greater  part  to  migrate  to  New  York  about  1 740 ;  and 
in  other  instances  the  churches  were  weakened  by  removals 
for  a  like  reason.  They  were  compelled  to  pay  taxes  for 
the  support  of  the  Congregationalist  churches,  while  they 
also  maintained  their  own. 

Their  position  was  much  more  favorable  where,  as  in 
Londonderry  and  other  newly  established  towns  of  New 
Hampshire  or  Maine,  they  themselves  constituted  the  town, 
and  levied  the  tax  for  the  support  of  their  own  minister. 
Their  first  Presbytery  was  constituted  before  1729,  and 
was  called  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry,  or,  by  their 
neighbors,  "  the  Irish  Presbytery."  It  had  some  sixteen 
ministerial  members  during  this  period,  with  a  still  larger 
number  of  feeble  churches  looking  to  it  for  supplies. 

The  great  body  of  the  immigrants  from  Ulster  sought 
the  middle  colonies,  especially  Pennsylvania,  attracted  by 
the  reports  of  the  toleration  practiced  in  that  colony  and 
of  its  great  natural  wealth.  The  historian  Proud  esti- 
mates that  six  thousand  had  arrived  by  i  "]26.  The  fail- 
ure of  the  grain  crops  of  Ulster  in  that  and  the  following 
years  increased  the  volume  of  immigration,  so  that  Proud 
estimates  it  at  twelve  thousand  a  year  until  1750.  While 
mixed  a  good  deal  with  the  people  of  the  older  settlements, 
these  newcomers  naturally  took  the  western  frontier,  which 


24  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

exposed  them  to  the  brunt  of  Indian  warfare,  and  led  them 
to  an  estimate  of  the  red  man  very  different  from  that 
accepted  by  the  Friends.  On  their  obtaining  control  of 
the  provincial  legislature,  therefore,  they  reversed  Penn's 
policy  of  peaceful  conciliation,  and  sought  precedents  for 
a  new  Indian  policy  in  the  Book  of  Joshua.  It  was  this 
exposure  to  the  French,  and  the  Indians  influenced  by 
them,  which  turned  their  attention  to  mo-re  southern  val- 
leys of  the  Appalachian  chain,  and  gave  them  a  southward 
impetus  which  carried  them  as  far  as  what  is  now  north- 
ern Alabama.  Here  they  joined  the  third  stream  of  Ulster 
immigration,  which  entered  the  Carolinas  by  Charleston. 
To  the  two  it  is  due  that  West  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
eastern  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and  adjacent  parts  of 
South  CaroHna,  Georgia,  and  Alabama  constitute,  with 
Pennsylvania,  an  American  Ulster,  far  more  extensive  and 
populous  than  King  James's  Irish  "plantation." 

It  is  no  longer  thought  sufficient  to  enumerate  Puritan, 
Cavalier,  and  Quaker  as  the  elements  which  made  up 
America  in  colonial  times,  and  directed  the  struggle  for 
independence.  It  is  now  recognized  that  even  thus  early 
the  Scotch-Irish  of  Ulster  contributed  no  less  than  any  of 
these  to  the  make-up  of  the  young  nation.  (If  the  Puritan 
might  be  regarded  as  the  thinking  brain  and  the  Quaker 
as  the  sympathetic  heart  of  the  new  nation,  the  Scotch- 
Irish  have  been  the  backbone  of  its  nationality")  Deficient 
alike  in  comprehensive  philanthropy  and  in  speculative 
intellect,  they  possess  in  their  volitional  energy  a  quality 
of  not  less  -importance,  as  it  has  made  them  the  element 
of  persistence  and  of  conservatism.  They  thus  recall  the 
part  played  by  the  Aaronic  priesthood  in  Jewish  history, 
which  was  less  brilliant  and  attractive  than  the  prophetic 
order,  but  not  less  useful  as  the  vertebral  link  which  bound 
generation  to  generation,  and  secured  the  continuity  of  the 


CHURCH  AND   SCHOOL.  5  5 

nation's  life.  **  Grant  that  I  may  always  be  right,  for  Thou 
knowest  I  am  hard  to  turn,"  is  the  recorded  prayer  of  one 
old  Presbyterian  elder  of  this  stock.  His  prayer  might  be 
adopted  by  the  whole  church — at  any  rate,  by  the  whole 
Scotch- Irish  stock. 

Especially  they  have  served  the  country  as  educators 
of  the  Middle  States,  and  of  those  which  lie  west  of  them. 
Their  early  ministers  were  generally  graduates  of  Glasgow, 
and  it  was  they  who  established  the  many  academies  of 
those  States,  in  which  young  men  were  given  an  educa- 
tion which  would  at  least  have  fitted  them  to  enter  any 
American  college.  This  threw  the  Presbyterian  clergy 
into  contact  with  others  than  their  own  people,  enlarged 
their  influence  for  good,  and  caused  their  church  to  be 
more  highly  esteemed.  In  view  of  the  church's  require- 
ment that  none  but  educated  men  should  be  regarded  as 
candidates  foi«*the  ministry,  this  combination  of  the  school- 
master with  the  pastor  was  regarded  as  natural  and  proper, 
as  indeed  their  every  seminary  was  a  seed-plot  for  the 
ministry.  They  thus  rendered  a  great  service  in  maintain- 
ing a  high  educational  standard  at  a  time  when  the  poverty 
of  the  country,  the  general  indifference  to  whatever  was 
''  unpractical,"  and  the  active  hostility  of  many  sects  to 
literary  culture,  made  this  very  much  harder  to  do  than  it 
is  to-day. 

At  the  time  now  under  consideration  the  Scotch-Irish 
settlers  were  most  numerous  in  Delaware  and  eastern 
Pennsylvania.^  It  was  through  their  coming  that  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  outgrew  the  Presbytery  and  was  obliged 
to  establish  a  Synod  with  four  subordinate  Presbyteries, 
being  one  each  in  New  York — which  then  included  New 
Jersey — Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  Maryland?  At  its 
constitution  in  171  7  the  Synod  consisted  of  all  the  minis- 
ters, with  one  elder  from  each  church.      But  in  1724  this 


26  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

provisional  arrangement  was  set  aside,  and  the  Presbyteries 
were  directed  to  choose  delegates  equal  to  half  their  num- 
ber, yet  with  the  proviso  that  every  third  year  all  should 
attend.  This  arrangement  for  delegation,  however,  lasted 
for  but  two  years,  and  then  "  the  full  Synod  "  was  restored 
as  a  permanent  institution. 

A  more  important  change  in  the  constitution  of  the 
church  was  the  Adopting  Act  of  i  729,  by  which  its  min- 
isters and  licentiates,  present  and  future,  were  required  to 
subscribe  to  the  Westminster  Confession  and  Catechisms, 
"  as  being,  in  all  essential  and  necessary  articles,  good 
forms  of  sound  words  and  systems  of  Christian  doctrine.") 

It  had  not  been  the  purpose  of  the  Westminster  As- 
sembly that  subscription  should  be  required  to  these 
*'  standards."  Subscription  never  was  introduced  into  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  England,  as  organized  in  various 
neighborhoods  largely  through  the  labors  of  members  of 
the  Assembly.  Nor  in  Scotland  was  it  required  until  it 
was  enacted  by  Act  of  Assembly  in  1690  to  secure  the 
ejection  of  the  Episcopalian  party  from  the  parishes  they 
still  held  in  the  northern  shires.  In  Ireland  the  Synod 
of  Ulster  introduced  it  in  1698,  but  required  it  only  of 
licentiates.  It  reenacted  it  in  1705,  for  all  its  ministers, 
as  a  safeguard  against  the  growing  tendency  to  Arianism. 
This  in  1726  resulted  in  a  division  of  the  Irish  Synod. 

In  America  the  Presbytery  of  New  Castle  had  exacted 
a  subscription  to  the  Confession  as  early  as  i  724,  and  it 
was  John  Thomson,  of  that  Presbytery,  who  first  memori- 
alized the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  to  do  the  same.  In  1728 
the  Presbytery  itself  renewed  the  memorial.  The  proposal 
met  with  opposition  from  the  New  England  and  from  the 
Welsh  ministers.  Jonathan  Dickinson,  of  Elizabethtown, 
pointed  to  the  rupture  of  the  Irish  Church  through  requir- 
ing it,  and  declared  that  while  subscription  might  exclude 


SUBSCRIPTION  ESTABIISHED. 


27 


those  who  were  scrupulous  as  to  what  they  signed,  it  would 
neither  **  detect  hypocrites,  nor  keep  concealed  heretics  out 
of  the  church."  He  and  his  friends  suspected  a  design 
on  the  part  of  the  Scotch  and  Irish  ministers  to  get  rid  of 
the  Welsh  and  the  native  American  element. 

In  the  Synod  of  1729,  after  the  question  had  been  fully 
handled  in  a  committee  containing  the  ablest  men  of  both 
parties,  an  agreement  was  reached  through  mutual  con- 
cessions. IThe  concession  to  the  opponents  of  subscription 
was  the  freedom  extended  to  ministers  and  licentiates  to 
express  to  Presbytery  or  Synod  the  scruples  they  felt  as 
to  any  article  in  the  standards,  leaving  the  body  to  judge 
whether  or  not  these  scruples  touched  the  ''  essential  and 
necessary  articles  of  faith."  This  followed  the  precedent 
set  by  the  Irish  Synod  in  its  **  Pacific  Act  "  of  1 720.  With 
this  proviso,  all  the  ministers  of  the  church  subscribed, 
"  after  proposing  all  the  scruples  that  any  of  them  had 
against  any  articles  or  expressions."  As  a  matter  of  fact 
these  scruples  related  only  to  "  some  clauses  in  the  20th 
and  24th  chapters  "  of  the  Confession,  which  treated  of  the 
power  of  the  civil  magistrate  in  matters  of  religion.  Yet 
"  many  persons  were  offended  "  at  this  qualification,  and 
desired  that  the  Synod  should  require  unconditional  sub- 
scription ;  and  some  petitioned  the  Associate  (or  Seceder) 
Synod  of  Scotland  to  establish  their  church  in  America 
on  that  basis. 

How  well  justified  were  Dickinson's  apprehensions  as 
to  the  futility  of  this  safeguard  against  heretics  was  seen 
within  a  few  years.  Samuel  Hemphill  applied  for  mem- 
bership in  1734,  bringing  credentials  from  the  Irish  Pres- 
bytery of  Strabane,  and  then,  for  the  second  time  within 
a  year,  subscribed  the  standards  without  the  statement  of 
either  "  scruple  "  or  objection.  A  year  later  we  find  him 
arraigned  before  the  Synod  for  preaching  something  Hke 


28  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

Deism,  and,  in  his  contumacious  absence,  declared  **  un- 
qualified for  any  future  exercise  of  his  ministry  "  within 
its  bounds.  This  first  heresy  case  led  the  Synod  to  pro- 
test against  the  practice  of  Irish  Presbyteries  in  **  ordaining 
men  to  the  ministry  sine  titiilo,  immediately  before  they 
come  over  hither,  thereby  depriving  us  of  our  just  rights," 
and  to  suggest  that  in  addition  to  '*  their  Presbyterial  cre- 
dentials," they  should  be  furnished  with  "private  letters 
of  recommendation,"  showing  them  to  be  '*  firmly  attached 
to  our  good  old  principles  and  schemes."  This  implies 
the  admission  that  subscription  was  not  the  safeguard  its 
friends  had  supposed  it. 

Of  much  graver  import  was  the  dissension  which  arose 
between  the  two  elements  of  the  Synod  with  regard  to  the 
rehgious  movement  known  in  American  church  history 
as  the  Great  Awakening — a  movement  which  made  itself 
felt  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  and  gave  a  new  direction  to 
the  religious  life  of  the  country. 

To  appreciate  fully  its  significance  it  must  be  remembered 
that' one  of  the  effects  of  emigration  upon  great  bodies  of 
men  is  almost  invariably  their  spiritual  declension.'  Just 
as  plants  hardly  can  be  transplanted  without  the  sacrifice 
of  those  fine  fibrous  roots  on  which  so  much  of  their  vital- 
ity depends,  so  the  human  transplantation  involves  the 
sacrifice  of  those  fibers  of  sacred  local  and  personal  asso- 
ciations upon  which  the  life  of  the  spirit  depends  so  much. 
The  old  home,  the  traditional  place  of  worship,  the  opinion 
of  hereditary  neighbors,  the  wholesome  routine  of  religious 
usage,  all  are  foregone ;  and  no  one  knows  how  much  he  is 
dependent  on  these  until  he  has  parted  with  them.  (Even 
in  New  England,  with  all  the  fervor  of  the  piety  of  Pilgrim 
and  Puritan  settlers,  the  symptoms  of  spiritual  decay  were 
speedily  felt,  especially  in  the  younger'  generation/  The 
Half-Way  Covenant,  with  its  frank  defiance  of  Congrega- 


''BARBARISM   THE  DANGERS  29 

tionalist  principle,  was  a  device  to  make  it  possible  that  the 
grandchildren  of  the  first  settlers  should  not  be  excluded 
from  baptism  and  visible  connection  with  the  church. 
With  each  decade  there  was  a  palpable  cooling  of  devo- 
tional fervor ;  and  in  spite  of  the  Reforming  Synods  held 
in  Boston  in  1679  and  1680  to  correct  the  growing  laxity, 
it  seemed  probable  that  the  sons  of  the  Puritans  would 
sink  into  shrewd  money-getters,  with  little  interest  in 
either  religion  or  the  higher  culture.  In  the  words  of 
Dr.  Bushnell,  "barbarism  was  the  next  danger." 

\The  Scotch- Irish  immigration  represented  a  class  which 
had  already  lost  some  ground  by  migration  to  Ireland,  and 
it  undoubtedly  suffered  spiritually  by  its  second  migration 
to  America,  first  of  all  through  the  want  of  a  regular  min- 
istry and  worship)  Matthew  Hill  writes  of  them  to  Bax-. 
ter  as  scattered  widely  in  Maryland,  **  as  sheep  without  a 
shepherd."  Where  they  made  the  attempt  to  gather  into 
congregations  they  were  generally  too  few  and  too  poor 
to  support  a  minister:  and  we  find  the  Synod,  in  1718, 
writing  to  the  Presbytery  of  Dublin  of  their  spiritual  des- 
titution, and  of  "  a  deplorable  necessity  of  still  continuing 
in  the  same  circumstances  of  darkness,  which  may  render 
both  themselves  and  posterity  miserable  Pagans."  Even 
where  it  was  possible  to  obtain  preachers,  these  in  many 
cases  were  not  of  a  character  to  weigh  heavily  on  the  side 
of  a  stricter  life.  The  number  of  cases  in  which  ministers 
were  arraigned  before  the  Presbytery  and  the  Synod  for 
grave  moral  offenses  was  very  large  in  proportion ;  and  in 
some  cases  the  penalties  imposed  were  very  inadequate  to 
the  offense  proven  or  confessed. 

As  the  Presbyterian  Church  was  not  exceptional  in 
any  of  these  unhappy  respects,  an  awakening  to  a  larger 
measure  of  spiritual  Hfe  was  needed  for  the  salvation  of 
the  whole  country."^  It  came  almost  parallel  with  the  great 


30  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chai'.  hi. 

Methodist  awakening  in  the  British  Islands,  and  it  was 
powerfully  promoted  by  George  Whitefield,  the  preacher 
of  that  movement.  But  it  had  a  somewhat  different  char- 
acter and  originated  independently  of  that,  and  even  earlier, 
in  the  labors  of  Jacob  Frelinghuysen^,/ who,  in  1719,  was 
settled  as  pastor  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  in  Rari- 
tan,  N.  J.  ■  where  he  remained  until  i  746.  He  was  a  native 
of  Hollatid,  and  there  had  been  affected  by  that  Pietist 
movement  which  was  to  influence  so  markedly  Whitefield 
and  the  Wesleys.  He  preached  "awakening"  sermons, 
insisted  on  evidences  of  regeneration  in  those  he  admitted 
to  the  Lord's  table,  and  saw  much  fruit  of  his  labors. ) 

Four  miles  from  Raritan  lay  New  Brunswick,  whose 
Presbyterian  Church  in  1726  called  to  its  pastorate  young 
Gilbert  Tennent,  who  soon  came  under  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  Dominie  Frelinghuysen.  Gilbert  Tennent's  father, 
William  Tennent,  had  emigrated  from  Ireland  to  America 
in  1 7 16.  He  was  in  Episcopal  orders,  but  was  of  Scotch- 
Irish  stock,  and  had  married  Catherine  Kennedy,  the 
daughter  of  an  eminent  Presbyterian  minister.  In  1718, 
possibly  through  her  influence,  he  renounced  the  prelatic 
forms  of  government  and  worship,  and  was  admitted  with- 
out reordination  into  the  Synod.  He  established  himself 
in  1726  on  the  Neshaminy,  north  of  Philadelphia,  and 
opened  an  academy,  which  its  enemies  nicknamed  '*  the 
Log  College."  His  son  Gilbert  he  had  already  educated 
for  the  ministry,  and  from  the  Neshaminy  academy  went 
forth  others — including  three  of  the  principal's  younger 
sons,  Samuel  Blair,  and  John  Rowland — whose  eminent 
usefulness  was  proof  of  the  spiritual  energy  of  their  teacher, 
i  At  New  Brunswick  Gilbert  Tennent/ at  first  had  but  a 
barren  ministry.  The  gift  of  power  came  to  him  after  a 
severe  illness,  and  a  loving  letter  from  Dominie  Freling- 
huysen.     He  now'preached  the  necessity  of  a  conscious 


THE    GREAT  AWAKENING.  3  I 

conversion  from  sin  to  God,  and  dealt  pungently  with  the 
barren  professors  he  found  in  his  charge.  From  1728 
onward  there  was  a  notable  harvest  of  conversions  in  his 
own  flock  and  the  adjacent  districts  to  which  he  extended 
his  labors/^ Cither  ministers — such  as  Jonathan  Dickinson 
at  Elizabethtown,  and  William  Tennentj,the  younger  at 
Freehold — had  the  same  joyful  experience  of  seeing  the 
ice  of  indifference  broken  and  the  message  of  the  gospel 
come  home  in  fresh  power  to  the  hearts  of  their  people. 

(All  this  was  much  before  the  arrival  of  George  White- 
field  for  his  great  evangehstic  tour  of  November,  1739, 
to  December,  1 740,  and  even  before  the  Awakening  in 
New  England,  which  began  in  1734  under  the  preaching 
of  Jonathan  Edwards!)  Indeed,  to  say  nothing  of  Dominie 
Frelinghuysen,  Gilbert  Tennent's  ingathering  began  at  New 
Brunswick  a  year. before  the  '*  Holy  Club  "  was  formed  at 
Oxford,  and  had  spent  its  force  before  the  date  assigned 
by  John  and  Charles  Wesley  as  that  of  their  conversion. 
Yet  the  two  movements  were  so  much  alike  in  character 
that  Whitefield  found  himself  entirely  at  home  among  the 
Tennents  and  their  co-workers ;  and  in  i  740  he  persuaded 
Gilbert  Tennent  to  continue  his  own  work  in  Boston,  where 
he  labored  for  months  with  great  impression.  From  White- 
field's  comments  we  may  infer  that  Tennent's  preaching 
was  more  severe  and  inculpatory  than  his  own.  '*  He  is 
a  son  of  thunder,  whose  preaching  must  either  convert  or 
enrage  hypocrites."  In  this  Tennent  reflected  the  manner 
of  the  Pietists,  without  the  alleviating  tinge  of  cheerfulness 
which  the  Methodists  got  from  the  Moravians.  ^ 

But  the  treasure  came  in  earthen  vessels.  Its  presen- 
tation was  affected  by  the  personal  weaknesses  and  the 
mental  limitations  of  those  who  bore  it,  and  by  the  spirit 
of  their  age.  (  Not  content  with  speaking  the  truth  it  had 
been  given  him  to  see,  Gilbert  Tennent  undertook  to  sit  in 


32  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  iii. 

judgment  upon  those  who  did  not  see  as  he  did.  He  and 
his  friends  denounced  **  unconverted  ministers"  as  '*  bhnd 
leaders  of  the  bhnd  "  ;  they  also  preached  within  the  bounds 
of  the  charges  of  the  ministers  so  described,  as  they  had 
opportunity,  without  leave  asked,  and  refusing  recognition 
•  jpf  their  ministerial  character. ' 

In  the  Synod  of  1 740  Tennent  and  Blair  presented 
papers  which  drew  a  black  picture  of  the  character  of  the 
ministry  as  a  body,  and,  when  challenged  to  substantiate 
their  charges,  they  had  to  admit  that  they  had  not  inves- 
tigated the  reports  they  accepted,  nor  had  they  spoken 
privately,  as  Christ  requires,  to  these  alleged  offenders. 

At  last,  by  a  famous  sermon,  preached  March  8,  i  740, 
at  Nottingham,  Pa.,  on  *'  An  Unconverted  Ministry,"  Gil- 
bert Tennent  brought  matters  to  a  head.^  It  was  such  a 
public  indictment  of  those  who  had  stood  aloof  from  the 
Awakening,  that,  even  without  the  naming  of  names,  it 
seemed  to  be  meant  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  minis- 
ters described  to  remain  in  synodical  communion  with  him 
and  his  friends. 
!  At  the  next  meeting  of  the  Synod  a  protest  signed  by 
twelve  ministers  and  eight  elders  was  presented  by  Robert 
Cross,  of  Philadelphia,  which  the  majority  of  the  Synod 
adopted  as  its  own. .  This  arraigned  the  party  represented 
by  Tennent  and  Blair  for  overthrowing  the  authority  of 
Synod  by  confining  its  powers  to  advice ;  for  disorderly 
irruptions  into  other  men's  congregations ;  for  censorious 
judgments  of  those  who  did  not  walk  with  them,  resulting 
in  the  disturbance  and  division  of  congregations  ;  for  mak- 
i;ig  the  call  to  the  ministry  a  matter  merely  of  personal 
feehng ;  for  preaching  the  terrors  of  the  law  "  in  such  a 
manner  and  dialect  as  has  no  precedent  in  the  Word  of 
God  "  ;  and  for  asserting  that  truly  gracious  persons  are 
able  to  judge  with  certainty  both  of  their  own  state  and 


THE   D I VI SI  OX  OF  17  4I.  33 

that  of  others.  On  these  grounds  they  denied  the  right 
of  the  ofTenders  to  sit  as  members  of  that  judicatory.  As 
the  Presbytery  of  New  York  was  not  represented,  while 
the  Southern  Presbyteries  were  present  in  strength,  that 
of  New  Brunswick  had  but  small  support.  Only  twenty- 
five  out  of  the  forty-seven  ministers  of  the  Synod  were 
in  attendance,  and  the  measure  was  carried  by  a  vote  of 
twelve  to  ten,  three  not  voting.  -The  ministers  and  elders 
of  the  New  Brunswick  Presbytery,  in  great  surprise  at  this 
result,  accepted  the  decision  and  withdrew.^) 

(Jhe  very  next  step  of  the  majority  was  to  alter  the 
terms  of  subscription  to  the  Westminster  standards,  mak- 
ing it  unconditional,  with  no  liberty  to  state  scruples  and 
have  Presbytery  or  Synod  pass  upon  them  as  to  whether 
they  touched  essential  doctrines.  Two  of  the  Presbyteries, 
indeed,  had  already  anticipated  this  action. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

FROM   THE    SCHISM   TO    THE    REUNION,   1741-58. 

The  division  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  1741,  what- 
ever elements  of  human  weakness  entered  into  it,  was  the 
result  of  forces  working  widely  in  the  Hfe  of  the  colonies 
and  of  Great  Britain.  It  was  an  indirect  result  of  the  Great 
Awakening  which  terminated  the  Puritan  and  inaugurated 
the  Pietist  or  Methodist  age  of  American  church  history. 

During  the  period  of  division  it  was  the  progressive 
or  New  Side  of  the  church  which  made  the  greater  prog- 
ress. After  a  friendly  attempt  to  effect  a  reconciliation 
in  1 742—43  the  Presbytery  of  New  York  declined  to  sit  in 
Synod  on  the  ground  that  the  New  Brunswick  Presbytery 
had  as  good  right  as  themselves.  They  also  desired  the 
good-will  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  in  establishing  a 
Synod  of  New  York,  and  this  was  accorded  with  some  re- 
luctance. The  body  thus  organized  embraced  the  New 
Brunswick  Presbytery,  and  increased  from  22  members  in 
1745  to  ']2  in  1758,  while  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  had 
fallen  from  24  to  23.  This  was  due  to  several  causes,  the 
first  being  the  establishment  in  1 746  of  the  College  of 
New  Jersey,  finally  located  at  Princeton  in  1757^ 

The  education  question  had  been  a  matter  of  contro- 
versy between  the  two  parties  until  the  Nottingham  ser- 
mon turned  the  waters  of  strife  into  a  new  channel.  The 
conservative  party,  in  their  anxiety  to  maintain  a  high 
standard  of  ministerial  culture,  ;  were  disposed  to  insist 
that  none  but  the  graduates  of  British  universities  or  New 
England  colleges  should  be  accepted  as  candidates.     TLo 

34 


THE  EDUCATION  PROBLEM.  35 

friends  of  the  Awakening)insisted  on  the  right  of  Presby- 
teries to  hcense  the  graduates  of  such  academies  as  Nesh- 
aminy,  in  view  of  the  urgent  need  of  preachers  and  pas- 
tors. And  they;insisted  that  the  Presbyteries  should  lay 
less  stress  on  college  training  and  more  on  the  evidence  of 
the  candidate  being  a  regenerate  man,  called  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  the  ministry.  /  To  overcome  the  former  difficulty 
the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  attempted  to  establish  a  college 
of  its  own,  there  being  none  at  that  time  in  the  Middle 
Colonies.  Failing  in  this,  they  voted,  in  1739,  to  create  a 
committee  to  examine  the  students  and  graduates  of  private 
seminaries,  and  to  give  those  whose  proficiency  merited 
it  a  certificate  which  would  serve  as  a  diploma  in  their 
application  to  Presbytery.  To  this  the  friends  of  Nesh- 
aminy  Academy  objected  for  reasons  told  us  only  by  their 
enemies,  viz.,  "  that  it  was  to  prevent  that  school  from 
training  gracious  men  for  the  ministry." 

After  the  division,  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  took  under 
its  care  the  academy  at  New  London  taught  by  Francis 
Alison,  an  Irish  graduate  of  Glasgow,  described  as  "  the 
best  Latin  scholar  in  America";  and  tried  to  make  an 
arrangement  with  Yale  College  for  the  further  training 
of  its  graduates.  *'  As  learning,"  they  write,  "  is  not  in 
the  same  esteem  in  this  government  as  in  New  England, 
we  beg  all  the  indulgence  your  constitution  can  allow  us, 
lest  parents  grudge  expenses  if  they  run  high."  But  this 
does  not  seem  to  have  accomplished  much,  and  in  1749- 
Alison  removed  to  Philadelphia  to  accept  a  post  in  the 
academy  newly  established  by  Franklin's  influence. 

'The  New  York  Synod  did  much  better  in  applying  for 
a  charter  for  a  college,  and  in  placing  it,  in  1745,  under 
the  direction  of  Jonathan  Dickinson,  of  P21izabethtown/the 
best  scholar,  the  most  effective  writer,  and  the  soundest 
judgment  in  the  church.     At  his  death,  in   1747,  Aaron 


36  THE  PRESBYTERIANS^  [Chap.  iv. 

Burr  was  chosen  to  succeed  him,  and  the  college  removed 
accordingly  to  Newark,  where  he  was  pastor,  (jn  1755 
both  it  and  Burr  were  transferred  to  Princeton^  and  on 
his  death,  in  1757,  he  was  succeeded  by  his  father-in- 
law,  Jonathan  Edwards,  who  hardly  Hved  to  enter  upon 
the  office,  and  was  followed  in  the  year  of  the  reunion 
by  Samuel  Davies.  (Jt  was  this  young  institution  which 
poured  into  the  Presbyterian  ministry  a  stream  of  young 
men,  imbued  with  sympathy  with  the  Awakening 'and 
zealous  for  its  objects?) 

(J^Jext  to  this,  it  was  the  sympathy  of  the  Synod  of  New 
York,  with  the  revival  of  religious  interest,  which  aided  its 
growth. .  The  spirit  of  the  time  in  the  colonies  was  revival- 
ist. Here  and  there  resistance  was  offered  :  Harvard  and 
Yale,  after  favoring  Whitefield,  turned  against  him;  Con- 
necticut enacted  arrest  and  expulsion  for  "  vagrant  preach- 
ers," and  applied  the  law  to  Samuel  Finle}^  who  had  gone 
to  New  Haven  to  preach  to  a  congregation  of  "  Separates." 
But  these  were  side-eddies,  and  the  main  current  of  the 
country's  religious  life  flowed^  in  the  new  channel,  to  the 
advantage  of  all  the  larger  social  interests.  Even  in  a 
political  sense  the  Great  Awakening  was  a  decisive  influ- 
ence. It  broke  the  barriers  of  colonial  reserve,  as  well  as 
of  sectarian  isolation,  and  gave  the  American  people,  for 
the  first  time,  a  common  intellectual  interest  in  the  move- 
ment, and  personal  interest  in  its  leaders.^)  Whitefield, 
Edwards,  and  Tennent  preceded  Franklin  and  Washing- 
ton as  rallying  names  for  Americans,  irrespective  of  local 
distinctions. 

All  this,  however,  does  not  require  us  to  regard  the 
Awakening  as  an  unmixed  good,  or  to  refuse  a  relative 
justification  to  those  who  opposed  it..  Nor  need  this  rela- 
tive justification  be  based  upon  the  extravagance  of  men 
like  James  Davenport  and  Jonathan  Barber,  or  the  unchar- 


FAULTS   OF   THE   AWAKENING.  37 

itableness  of  Tennent  and  Blair.  Indeed,  these  excesses 
were  quickly  sloughed  off,  and  the  Synod  of  New  York, 
under  the  sober  leadership  of  Jonathan  Dickinson,  was  ani- 
mated by  a  different  spirit  from  that  of  its  Presbytery  of 
New  Brunswick.  Gilbert  Tennent  himself  laid  aside  his 
asperity,  labored  for  the  reunion  of  the  two  bodies,  aban- 
doned his  oddities  in  dress,  and  donned  a  wig.  As  pastor 
of  the  Second  Church  in  Philadelphia,  in  avowed  opposi- 
tion to  the  view  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  he  maintained  that 
persons  of  blameless  life,  properly  instructed  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity,  should  be  admitted  to  the  Lord's 
table.  Like  Whitefield  and  Wesley,  he  lived  to  repent 
and  retract  the  hasty  and  censorious  judgments  he  had 
pronounced  on  his  brethren  in  the  ministry. 

{The  real  faults  of  the  Awakening  lay  deeper) than  these 
superficial  matters.  One  of  them  is  indicated  by  the  very 
name  Methodism,  by  which  the  movement  has  been  so 
generally  known.  (Jt  set  out  with  the  assumption  that 
there  is  one  method  of  grace,  by  which  all  God's  true 
people  are  made  alive  unto  him  through  his  Son ;  and  it 
exacted  of  all  much  the  same  evidences  of  this  uniform 
Christian  experience.  Instantaneous,  conscious  conversion, 
preceded  by  an  overwhelming  sense  of  personal  guilt,  and 
followed  by  a  joyful  assurance  of  acceptance  with  God, 
was  the  only  07'do  saliitis  it  recognized.  '  Religion  must 
thus  come  into  the  man  like  **  a  bolt  from  the  blue,"  and 
with  no  conceivable  relation  to  the  past  providences  of  his 
life,  the  human  relationships  in  which  he  had  been  placed 
by  God,  and  the  Christian  nurture  in  divine  things  he 
had  received  from  his  childhood.  Mankind  were  classi- 
fied broadly  into  those  who  knew  they  were  converted 
and  those  who  were  not.  (The  "  judgment  of  charity  "  of 
the  Reformed  churches  was  displaced  by  the  Anabaptist 
demand   for  a  church-membership   giving  ''  credible  evi- 


38  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

dence  "  of  regeneration;  and  the  Christian  nurture  of  the 
family,  along  with  the  catechetical  instruction  of  the  young 
by  their  pastors,  came  to  be  regarded  as  relatively  unim- 
portant/ 

The  resultant  type  of  Christian  experience  was  one  iso- 
lated from  the  relationships  and  relative  duties  of  life  in  a 
very  un-Protestant  fashion ;  and  the  energy  of  attention 
was  concentrated  upon  the  succession  of  inward  emotions 
and  feelings.  An  age  of  introspection  and  consequently 
of  spiritual  gloom  was  one  result,  while  the  direct  appli- 
cation of  Christian  principle  to  the  whole  life  of  Christian 
society,  and  the  reaUzation  of  God's  kingdom  in  this  pres- 
ent world,  were  hardly  contemplated  as  Christian  duties. 
The  theocratic  element  in  the  Hfe  of  the  Reformed  Church, 
notably  reflected  in  Makemie's  New  York  sermon,  gave 
way  before  an  introspective  pietism,  which  had  much  in 
common  with  the  monasticism  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

(But  in  the  period  we  are  considering  Presbyterian  pietism 
was  in  the  heyday  of  youth,  with  all  the  charm  of  novelty 
and  of  earnestness.^  It  was  its  internal  vigor,  and  the  zeal 
it  was  able  to  elicit  in  the  young  men  it  drew  into  the  min- 
istry, that  made  possible  the  rapid  increase  of  the  church 
within  the  New  Side  Synod. 

(One  sign  of  this  vigor  was  the  organization  of  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Hanover,  the  mother-Presbytery  of  most  of  the 
churches  and  Presbyteries  south  of  the  Potomac^  As  early 
as  1 7 19  the  Scotch-Irish  migration  began  to  flow  down 
the  Shenandoah  Valley,  occupying  fertile  districts  still  un- 
touched by  the  tobacco-planters  of  the  eastern  counties, 
and  bearing  the  brunt  of  Indian  hostility.  In  view  of  these 
services  the  intolerant  ecclesiastical  laws  of  the  colony  were 
allowed  to  remain  a  dead  letter  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge, 
and  the  people  were  visited  from  time  to  time  by  Pres- 
byterian preachers  from  the  North,  generally  of  the  Old 


THE   PRESBYTERY  OF  HANOVER.  39 

Side.  It  was  different  when  Presbyterianism  struck  root 
in  Hanover  County,  built  its  meeting-houses  in  the  par- 
ishes of  the  Established  Church,  and  sent  zealous  preach- 
ers like  William  Robinson,  Samuel  Davies,  John  Rodgers, 
and  John  Todd  to  do  the  work  neglected  by  the  sleepy 
and  worldly  rectors  of  the  Virginian  establishment.  They 
did  not  come  uncalled.  The  reading  of  a  few  religious 
works  by  some  planters  of  the  county  had  produced  a 
religious  awakening  independent  of  church  or  clergy.  At 
first  they  met  only  to  hear  such  books  read,  and  buildings 
had  to  be  erected  for  the  accommodation  of  the  crowds 
who  came.  Hearing  of  William  Robinson,  who  was  travel- 
ing toward  North  Carolina  for  his  health  and  preaching 
as  he  \v^nt,  they  sent  for  him,  satisfied  themselves  of  his 
orthodoxy  and  piety,  and  put  the  direction  of  affairs  into 
his  hands.  Through  their  labors  and  his,(Presbyterianism 
struck  root  in  a  community  English  and  Episcopalian  by 
its  traditions.  Thanks  to  the  eloquence  and  the  administra- 
tive ability  of  Davies,  as  well  as  to  the  favor  of  a  Scotch 
governor,  it  was  protected  from  the  legalized  intolerance 
of  the  established  clergy,  and  had  time  and  room  to  grow. 
On  hearing  of  Jonathan  Edwards's  removal  from  North- 
ampton in  1749,  Samuel  Davies  wrote  to  urge  his  coming 
to  Virginia,  but  was  too  late,  as  he  had  consented  to  take 
charge  of  the  Indian  mission  at  Stockbridge.  {\xv  1755  the 
Synod  of  New  York  organized  the  Presbytery  of  Han- 
over, which  embraced  all  the  ministers  who  were  resident 
in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  except  the  Presbytery  of 
Charleston)  and  one  minister  who  adhered  to  the  Synod 
of  Philadelphia. 

(The  Awakening  bore  fruit  also  in  the  mission-work 
among  the  Northern  Indians,  begun  in  1 743  by  David 
Brainerd?)  With  the  forks  of  the  Delaware  as  his  center, 
he  extended  his  labors  from  Freehold  on  the  east  to  the 


40  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

Susque4ianna  on  the  west.  His  saintly  fervor,  which  made 
him  wilhng  to  forego  all  the  comforts  of  civilized  life, 
touched  the  heart  of  the  red  man  as  it  had  not  been  since 
the  days  of  John  Eliot,  if  even  then;  and  a  large  harvest 
of  converts  was  gathered.  After  his  early  death,  in  1747, 
his  brother  John  stepped  into  his  place,  and  carried  on  the 
work  with  some  interruptions  until  his  death,  in  1 78 1,  but 
with  less  fruit  of  his  labor.  So  in  1748-50  Elihu  Spencer 
labored  among  the  Oneidas  of  New  York.  In  1757  the 
Presbytery  of  Suffolk  ordained  a  Connecticut  Mohegan, 
Samson  Occom,  to  labor  among  his  own  people,  which  he 
did  until  his  death,  in  1791.  He  and  President  Davies 
liwere  the  two  first  hymn-writers  of  the  American  Presby- 
//terian  Church.  * 

(it  was  during  this  time  that  two  other  types  of  British 
Presbyterianism  found  a  home  in  America?)  The  Revolu- 
tion Settlement  of  1688-90  had  been  accepted  by  all  the 
surviving  ministers,  of  whatever  shade  of  Presbyterianism. 
Many,  however,  of  the  Cameronians,  or  Hill  People,  who 
formed  the  extreme  right  w^ing  of  the  church  and  who 
had  disowned  all  who  had  acceoted  the  Indulo^ence  of 
1670,  no  less  than  the  Scottish  and  Irish  prelates  and 
their  "  curates,"  objected  to  the  settlement  as  dealing  too 
gently  with  **  the  indulged,"  and  as  making  no  proper  rec- 
ognition of  the  binding  obligation  of  the  national  Covenants 
of  1638  and  1643.  They  in  fact  continued  to  renounce 
allegiance  to  both  church  and  state  as  established  in  Scot- 
land. As  they  had  no  ministers,  they  sought  to  edify  one 
another  in  ''  corresponding  societies  "  until  the  accession  of 
John  Macmillan,  a  minister  of  the  Scottish  Kirk,  in  I  706, 
enabled  them  to  obtain  the  sacraments  in  an  orderly  way. 
That  of  Mr.  Nairn,  a  minister  of  the  Seceder  Church(in 
1743,  made  possible  the  constitution  of  a  Reformed  Pres- 
byteryT) 


COVENANTERS  AND   SECEDERS.  41 

(Three  ministers  of  the  American  Synod — Alexander 
Craighead  and  David  Alexander,  both  of  Donegal  Pres- 
bytery, and  John  Cross,  of  New  Brunswick  Presbytery — 
were  in  agreement  with  the  Reformed  Presbyterians)  (or 
Covenanters)  as  to  the  perpetual  obligation  of  the  Cov- 
enants, while  the  rest,  in  so  far  as  they  had  any  distinct 
opinion  in  the  matter,  were  satisfied  with  the  Revolution 
Settlement.  (In  i  740  Craighead  was  suspended  for  mak- 
ing the  Covenants  a  term  of  communion  in  his  congrega- 
tion at  Middle  Octorara,  Pa.,  and  for  other  matters  grow- 
ing out  of  his  zealous  advocacy  of  the  Awakening?)  After 
the  exclusion  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick  from 
the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  he  pleaded  with  them  to  renew 
the  Covenants,  and  when  they  refused  he  turned  to  the 
Scottish  Reformed  Presbytery,  and  asked  helpers  for  Amer- 
ica. \k.\.  Octorara  in  i  743  he  and  his  adherents  solemnly 
renewed  the  Covenants,  with  swords  pointed  to  the  four 
quarters  of  the  heavens,  as  though  to  defy  opposition  from 
whatever  quarter  it  might  come^  In  I  75  i  the  Scotch  Pres- 
bytery sent  John  Cuthbertson,  but  two  years  before  this 
Craighead  had  joined  the  Synod  of  New  York.  Some  at 
least  of  his  followers  were  more  tenacious,  and  at  Middle 
Octorara  Cuthbertson  made  his  home,  ministering  to  the 
scattered  societies  of  the  Covenanters  of  Pennsylvania, 
until  the  union  of  1782. 

It  is  said,  but  probably  not  correctly,  that  Craighead, 
when  tired  with  waiting  for  a  response  from  the  Reformed 
Presbytery,  made  application  to  thcvAssociate  (or  Seceder) 
Synod  of  Scotland.)  This  was  the  second  body  of  conserv- 
ative Presbyterians^vhich  declared  their  separation  from 
the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  charging  it  with  unfaithfulness  to 
its  own  principles.  It  was  in  I733\that  Ebenezer  Erskine 
and  three  other  ministers  of  the  Synod  of  Perth,  who  had 
been  condemned  for  holding  and  teaching  the  doctrines  of 


42  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

Edward  Fisher's  book,  "  The  Marrow  of  Modern  Divin- 
ity "  (i644)/organized  the  first  Associate  Presbytery  .J  In 
I  746-47  they  had  divided  as  to  the  lawfulness  of  the  oath 
exacted  of  burgesses  in  the  Scottish  burghs,  into  Burghers 
and  Antiburghers.  To  them,  as  representing  all  that  was 
pronounced  in  Calvinism  and  strict  in  Presbyterianism,  and 
yet  not  breaking  with  the  civil  government  over  Scotland 
and  America — as  Craighead  and  the  Covenanters  did — an 
appeal  was  made  by  those  Presbyterians  in  Pennsylvania 
who  objected  to  the  qualified  subscription  exacted  in  1729 
by  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania.  In  1753  the  Antiburgher 
Synod  responded  by  sending  Alexander  Gellatly  and  An- 
drew Arnot  to  America,  with  authority  to  organize  con- 
gregations and  to  constitute  a  Presbytery.  Hn  the  mean- 
time the  division  of  1 741  had  enabled  the  Old  Side  to 
alter  the  terms  of  subscription  in  the  Synod  of  Philadel- 
phia to  such  as  ought  to  have  satisfied  the  most  orthodox^ 
On  the  other  hand,  the  New  Side  Presbytery  of  Newcas- 
tle issued  **  a  judicial  warning  "  against  the  newcomers, 
denouncing  them  as  schismatics,  and  ''  the  Marrow  doc- 
trines "  as  unsound.  To  this  Messrs.  Gellatly  and  Arnot 
naturally  published  a  reply ;  and  the  relations  of  the  two 
wings  of  the  Presbyterian  host  were  involved  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  unhappy  and  unprofitable  controversy  as  to  the 
obligation  of  the  Covenants,  the  nature  of  faith,  and  the 
extent  and  manner  of  "  the  gospel  offer."  Each  party 
naturally  tended  to  lay  stress  on  that  which  sundered  it 
from  the  other. 

*^A  fresh  ground  of  difference  showed  itself  in  New  York) 
Here  a  Presbyterian  church  had  been  organized  in  1716, 
but  as  the  Episcopalian  influence  defeated  its  repeated 
efforts  to  obtain  a  charter,  it  had  been  forced  to  vest  its 
property  in  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  Scotch  and 
Scotch-Irish  element  in  the  congregation  always  had  had 


ROUS   OR    IVATTS?  43 

some  friction  with  the  Puritans  from  New  England,  and 
^his  came  to  a  head  in  1752,  when  the  attempt  was  made 
to  substitute  Dr.  Watts's  paraphrastic  version  of  the  Book 
of  Psalms  for  the  less  smooth  but  more  faithful  versioa- 
based  on  that  of  Francis  Rous  (1643),  ^^^^  adopted  after 
revision  by  the  Westminster  divines  in  1645,  ^'^^  by  the 
Scottisli  Assembly  in  1649.  This  Scottish  psalter  was  re- 
pugnant to  the  tastes  of  the  eighteenth  century  through  its 
strong  no  less  than  its  weak  points ;  and  the  Great  Awak- 
ening had  affected  the  taste  in  psalmody  as  much  as  in 
anything  else.  /The  Synod  of  New  York  in  1756  refused 
to  condemn  the  use  of  Watts,  as  it  was  orthodox,  and  **  as 
no  particular  version  is  of  divine  authority.".)  So  in  that 
year  the  disaffected  withdrew  and  organized  a  **  Scotch 
church,"  which  next  year  was  taken  under  the  care  of 
the  Associate  Presbytery.  The  Synod  of  Philadelphia  had 
not  sanctioned  any  innovation  in  psalmody ;  and  in  the 
Synod  of  New  York  we  hear  of  it  only  in  this  one  church, 
and  even  in  that  no  hymns  were  sung.  In  this  way,  how- 
ever, arose  the  great  dispute  as  to  the  proper  "  matter  of 
praise,"  which  still  divides  the  lesser  and  more  conservative 
Presbyterian  bodies  from  the  greater. 

(^Throughout  the  whole  period  of  the  separation  of  the 
two  Synods,  that  of  New  York  had  labored  for  reconcilia- 
tion and  reunion)  with  increasing  weight  as  its  numbers 
grew,  and  its  management  of  its  affairs  gave  evidence  of 
its  sobriety  and  orthodoxy.  At  first  the  personal  irritation 
on  the  side  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  was  naturally 
very  considerable,  but  only  against  the  eight  Irish  minis- 
ters of  the  Tennent  group"^  For  Dickinson  and  his  New 
York  associates.  New  England  Puritans  chiefly,  they  always 
avowed  their  high  regard.  (At  last,  in  1758,  a  plan  of  union 
was  reached  which  both  could  adopt"!)  As  regards  both 
subscription  to  the  standards  and  the  authority  of  Synod 


44  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

and  the  Presbyteries,  the  Old  Side  carried  their  point. 
^Arrangements  for  stating  scruples  and  leaving  the  church 
court  to  judge  of  their  importance  were  dropped.  Those 
who  dissented  from  synodical  or  presbyterial  action  might 
withdraw  or  protest,  but  nothing  more.  Intrusion  into 
other  men's  congregations  and  wholesale  indictments  of 
brother-ministers  were  forbidden  as  irregular.  As  to  the 
questions  growing  out  of  the  Awakening,  a  compromise 
was  reached.  It  was  provided  that  candidates  for  the 
ministry  should  be  examined  as  to  their  *'  experimental 
acquaintance  with  religion,"  no  less  than  their  learning 
and  orthodoxy.  As  to  the  Awakening  itself,  instead  of 
pronouncing  upon  it,  the  basis  defines  /;/  tJiesi  what  is  "  a 
work  of  grace,"  in  terms  far  more  natural  to  the  new  the- 
ology than  the  old ;  and  while  repudiating  the  extrava- 
gances of  visionaries,  it  pledged  the  united  Synod  to  work 
for  the  promotion  of  what  was  thus  described. ) 

/On  this  basis  the  reunited  church  entered  upon  a  new 
period  of  activity.^  The  stricter  view  of  Presbyterianism 
had  prevailed  over  the  looser  in  matters  of  church  order. 
The  newer  view  had  prevailed  over  the  older  in  that  of 
the  perspective  of  doctrine  and  its  practical  application. 
(The  united  church  thus  reached  a  comparatively  stable 
equilibrium,  which  was  to  last  for  eighty  years.^ 


CHAPTER   V. 

REUNION    AND    GROWTH,   1 758-75. 

By  reason  of  the  extent  of  the  immigration  from  Ulster, 
and  of  the  adhesion  of  Puritan  migrants  from  New  Eng- 
land, the  Presbyterian  Church  was  now  one  of  the  three 
largest  in  the  country.  While  the  Congregationalists  pre- 
dominated in  New  England,  and  the  Episcopal  Church 
was  established  in  New  York  and  in  the  States  south  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  in  the  States  between  the  Hud- 
son and  the  Potomac  there  were  more  Presbyterians  than 
anything  else.  At  the  beginning  of  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence the  thirteen  colonies  had  186  Presbyterian  and 
61  Reformed  ministers.  Taken  along  w^ith  the  Congrega- 
tionahsts,  who  were  in  the  friendliest  relations  with  them, 
they  constituted  a  controlling  majority  of  the  American 
people. 

In  the  Southern  colonies  the  Presbyterian  churches 
were  increasing  rapidly  by  immigration  from  Ulster.  The 
advantages  of  a  strong  organization  and  of  vigorous  synodi- 
cal  authority  were  especially  shown  in  enabling  the  Synod 
to  meet  the  rapidly  multiplying  demand  for  ministerial 
service  from  unorganized  communities  and  vacant  churches 
in  the  Carolinas,  Virginia,  western  Pennsylvania,  and  north- 
ern New  York.  At  least  one  session  of  each  meeting  of 
the  Synod  was  occupied  with  no  other  business  than  arrang- 
ing supplies,  frequently  by  requiring  the  older  churches  to 
give  up  the  services  of  their  pastors  for  the  time  needed  for 
a  journey  to  the  South  or  across  the  Alleghanies.      Even 

45 


46  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

from  Nova  Scotia  came  an  appeal  for  help,  so  widely  dif- 
fused was  confidence  in  the  Synod's  abiUty  to  overtake 
the  demands  of  a  growing  field. 

The  correspondence  of  the  time  shows  how  much  atten- 
tion was  aroused  in  New  England  by  the  effective  disci- 
pline over  pastors,  candidates,  and  people  which  the  Synod 
exercised.  As  a  consequence  the  Puritan  churches  and 
ministers  within  the  bounds  of  the  middle  and  Southern 
colonies  gave  their  adhesion  to  the  Synod  very  generally. 
Those  which  lay  between  the  Hudson  River  and  the  Con- 
necticut line  had  organized  themselves  into  a  Presbytery 
of  Dutchess  County  in  1752,  and  were  admitted  to  the 
Synod  in  1763. 

The  college  at  Princeton  continued  to  surpass  the  hopes 
of  its  founders  as  a  source  of  supply  of  the  ministry.  The 
presidency  of  Samuel  Davies  (1759-61),  the  most  brilliant 
preacher  thus  far  of  the  church,  ended  too  quickly  to  real- 
ize the  expectations  his  election  had  roused.  In  1753-54 
he  and  Gilbert  Tennent  had  visited  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land to  secure  an  endowment  fund  from  the  Presbyterians 
and  orthodox  dissenters,  and  had  met  with  marked  suc- 
cess. His  successor,  Samuel  Finley,  was  one  of  the  few 
survivors  of  the  Sturm  mid  Drang  period  of  the  Awaken- 
ing, and  his  academy  at  Nottingham  had  been  a  fruitful 
nursery  of  ministers.  In  his  presidency  (1761-66)  there 
was  a  notable  revival  in  the  college.  In  1768  Prijiceton 
received  one  of  its  great  presidents  in  Dr.  John  Wither- 
spoon,  who  had  been  elected  in  1766.  He  already  had 
made  a  name  as  the  literary  champion  of  earnest  Calvin- 
ism against  the  moderate  party  in  the  Kirk  of  Scotland. 
He  now  showed  no  less  ability  as  an  administrator  and 
educator,  the  latter  as  filling  the  new  chair  of  divinity. 

His  position  in  church  affairs  in  Scotland  threw  him 
into  sympathetic  relations  with  the  Associate  Presbytery 


THE  AMERICAN  SECEDERS.  47 

in  America;  and  in  1769,  at  their  request,  he  moved  for 
a  committee  of  conference  with  a  view  to  union.  These 
negotiations  continued  until  1774,  when  it  was  manifest 
that  the  Associate  brethren  could  not  see  their  way  to  an 
agreement.  Probably  this  final  refusal  was  due  to  the 
stiffening  recei^'ed  in  the  meantime  from  the  Scottish  As- 
sociate Synod.  In  1 764-68  five  ministers  of  the  Burgher 
branch  of  the  Associate  body  had  arrived  in  America,  and 
appHed  for  admission  into  the  Associate  Presbytery.  As 
the  point  of  difference  between  the  two  Seceder  churches 
had  no  pertinence  to  America,  the  Presbytery  agreed  to 
accept  them  on  the  footing  of  assent  to  the  common  prin- 
ciples as  defined  in  the  Secession  Testimony.  But  as  the 
American  Presbytery  was  subordinate  to  the  Scotch  Synod, 
this  now  felt  itself  compromised  by  being  brought  into  fel- 
lowship with  ministers  who  approved  of  the  Burgher  oath. 
Two  more  ministers  were  sent  out,  with  instructions  not 
to  take  their  seat  in  Presbytery  until  the  Burgher  members 
were  expelled.  This  was  done  in  1771,  and  they  were  told 
that  *'  it  was  very  sinful  "  in  Presbytery  to  have  admitted 
them. 

During  the  period  we  are  considering  the  Associate  Pres- 
bytery increased  to  thirteen  ministers,  resident  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  York,  and  in  1776  it  was  divided  into 
two  Presbyteries,  named  from  those  colonies.  As  each 
was  directly  subject  to  the  Synod  in  Scotland,  they  were 
related  to  each  other  only  by  way  of  correspondence — an 
arrangement  which  resulted  in  the  development  of  two  dis- 
tinct types  of  American  Seceders.  The  Reformed  Presby- 
tery, organized  in  1774,  had  now  three  ministers  laboring 
among  small  "  societies  "  in  Pennsylvania. 

Besides  the  Synod  and  these  conservative  Presbyteries 
there  was  a  Presbytery  of  South  Carolina,  organized  in 
1723,    or  sooner,    largely   composed    of   Scotchmen,   and 


48  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

claiming  to  represent  the  Kirk  of  Scotland.  Its  members 
seem  to  have  been  in  sympathy  with  the  Moderate  party 
in  the  Kirk,  as  we  hear  of  Principal  Robertson  and  Dr. 
Hugh  Blair  selecting  a  minister  for  their  Charleston  church. 
They  were  not,  therefore,  fraternal  in  their  relations  to  the 
zealous  revivalist  preachers  of  the  Synod. 

In  New  England  the  course  of  events  had  been  not  un- 
like that  in  the  Middle  States.  It  is  true  that  the  question 
on  which  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry  divided  in  1736 
was  that  of  their  relation  to  the  Congregationalist  churches 
and  their  discipline.  But  it  is  notable  that  the  Presbytery 
of  Boston,  organized  in  i  745  by  the  minority,  threw  itself 
with  zeal  into  the  measures  of  the  Great  Awakening,  and 
rapidly  outgrew  its  elder  rival,  which  by  1 765  had  become 
extinct  by  depletion.  By  1 77 1  the  rcw  body  began  to 
consider  the  propriety  of  constituting  a  Synod,  a  step 
which  was  carried  out  in  1774,  the  fifteen  or  sixteen  min- 
isters of  the  Synod  of  New  England  being  divided  into  four 
Presbyteries  —  Boston,  Newburyport  (afterward  Salem), 
Londonderry,  and  Palmer.  Nearly  at  the  same  time  were 
organized  two  other  Presbyteries :  that  of  the  Eastward 
and  that  of  Grafton,  or  of  the  Connecticut  River.  The 
latter  was  composed  of  President  Wheelock,  of  Dartmouth 
College,  then  newly  founded,  and  other  Congregationalist 
admirers  of  Presbyterian  methods ;  and  it  held  itself  strictly 
aloof  from  other  Presbyterian  bodies.  The  Presbytery  of 
the  Eastward  was  refused  recognition  by  the  Synod,  on 
the  ground  that  its  founder  and  leading  spirit,  John  Mur- 
ray, of  Boothbay,  Me.,  had  no  ministerial  standing,  as  the 
Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  had  deposed  him  from  the  min- 
istry little  more  than  a  year  after  it  had  ordained  him. 
He,  however,  was  a  man  of  much  greater  vitality  than 
any  in  the  new-  Synod,  and  the  Presbytery  of  the  East- 
ward grew  at  its  expense,  the  first  secessions  being  those 


DISSENSIONS  IN   THE   SYNOD.  49 

of  the  church  in  Boston  and  that  in  Newburyport,  where 
George  Whitefield  had  been  buried  in  i  770.  Its  aged  pas- 
tor, Jonathan  Parsons,  in  whose  house  the  great  preacher 
had  dieei,  took  Murray's  part;  and  in  1776  Murray  became 
his  successor,  after  refusing  a  call  to  Boston.  The  Psalm- 
ody question  also  arose  in  New  England,  as  in  1774  Moses 
Baldwin  of  Palmer  made  the  first  move  toward  a  substitute 
for  the  Scotch  psalter.  This  led  some  of  the  conservatives 
to  turn  their  eyes  toward  the  Associate  Presbytery  of  New 
York. 

This  was  the  period  of  greatest  growth  of  New  England 
Presbyterianism.  In  New  Hampshire  the  five  churches 
of  1760  had  grown  to  twenty  by  1778;  afid  the  number 
in  Maine  cannot  have  been  less.  That  of  ministers  in  all 
three  bodies  is  estimated  at  thirty-two. 

The  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  however, 
was  by  far  the  largest  and  most  growing  body.  But  it 
was  not  possessed  of  complete  homogeneity  and  harmony. 
The  Old  Side  and  the  New  were  united,  but  not  quite 
reconciled,  and  three  occasions  for  dissension  were  found : 
(i)  The  reconstruction  of  the  Presbyteries  was  found  easy, 
except  in  the  districts  covered  by  the  two  Presbyteries  of 
Newcastle  and  the  Old  Side  Presb)^tery  of  Donegal.  This 
was  the  region  in  which  the  antagonisms  of  the  old  con- 
troversies had  been  sharpest  and  most  personal ;  and  the 
Synod  found  it  hard  to  effect  such  a  reconstruction  as  was 
demanded  by  the  interests  of  the  church  at  large.  '  At  one 
time  a  part  of  the  Presbytery  of  Donegal  for  three  years 
actually  declined  the  jurisdiction  of  Synod  rather  than  sub- 
mit to  its  arrangements ;  and  there  was  a  constant  transfer 
of  ministers  and  churches  from  Presbytery  to  Presbytery 
for  the  sake  of  peace.  (2)  The  especial  bone  of  conten- 
tion within  the  Presbyteries  was  the  examination  of  candi- 
dates for  the  ministry.      The  Plan  of  Union  forbade  Pres- 


50  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

byteries  to  license  or  ordain  any  one  "  until  he  give  them 
competent  satisfaction  as  to  his  learning  and  experimental 
acquaintance  with  religion,  and  skill  in  divinity  and  cases 
of  conscience."  The  Old  Side  members  contended  that 
this  meant  nothing  more  than  the  requirement  of  the 
Westminster  Directory,  that  the  Presbytery  shall  "  inquire 
touching  the  grace  of  God  in  the  candidate,  and  if  he  be 
of  such  holiness  of  life  as  is  requisite  in  a  minister  of  the 
gospel."  The  New  Side,  however,  would  be  content  with 
nothing  less  than  the  rehearsal  in  Presbytery  of  his  relig- 
ious experiences,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Awakening.  To  this 
it  was  objected  that  beyond  the  profession  of  faith  in  the 
gospel  no  man*or  body  of  men  had  a  right  to  inquire  into 
the  religious  state  of  another ;  and  that  the  proper  means 
to  ascertain  the  presence  of  grace  in  a  man  is  not  his  own 
testimony  concerning  himself,  but  the  testimony  of  those 
who  have  best  known  his  life  and  conversation.  In  1761 
the  Synod  was  on  the  verge  of  a  fresh  division  on  this 
issue,  each  party  contending  that  it  stood  for  the  true 
sense  of  the  Plan  of  Union,  and  a  large  majority  sustain- 
ing the  demand  for  a  public  rehearsal  of  experiences.  To 
avoid  a  renewal  of  the  schism  it  was  agreed  that  the 
majority  of  each  Presbytery  should  take  whichever  course 
it  preferred ;  and  that  if  the  minority  could  not  acquiesce 
conscientiously,  they  should  be  organized  as  a  separate 
Presbytery.  This  was  a  most  un- Presbyterian  solution  of 
the  difficulty,  as  it  abandoned  the  principle  of  unity  in  pro- 
cedure in  a  matter  of  vital  importance.  Thus  the  Second 
Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  organized  under  this  author- 
ity out  of  Old  Side  ministers  and  churches,  had  power  to 
admit  to  the  ministry  men  who  in  the  view  of  the  First 
Presbytery,  and  of  the  church  at  large,  might  be  altogether 
unfit  persons.  The  majority  acted  with  more  charity  than 
prudence  in  thus  setting  what  proved  a  fatal  precedent, 


NEIV  SIDE  RIGOR. 


51 


as  Presbyteries  of  this  structure  were  sure  to  perpetuate 
and  intensify  the  differences  they  represented. 

As  a  rule,  however,  the  majority  in  the  united  Synod 
acted  with  more  rigor  of  authority  than  charitable  con- 
sideration for  the  scruples  or  sensibilities  of  the  minority. 
Although  it  consisted  largely  of  New  England  Puritans, 
who  had  entertained  scruples  as  to  the  exercise  of  presby- 
terial  and  synodical  authority  over  the  churches,  and  of 
the  New  Brunswick  party,  which  had  tried  to  minimize 
that  authority  into  an  advisory  power,  it  now  showed  little 
hesitation  in  laying  down  with  sharp  precision  the  lines  on 
which  the  order  and  discipline  of  the  church  must  move. 
This  was  seen  (3)  in  the  dispute  as  to  the  power  of  Synod 
and  Presbytery  to  deal  with  applicants  from  the  Presby- 
terian churches  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  Pres- 
byterian churches  of  England,  and  a  part  of  those  of  Ircr 
land,  had  fallen  into  Arianism.  Even  in  the  Scottish  Kirk 
a  similar  tendency  had  been  shown  ;  and  since  the  seces- 
sion of  the  Erskines  and  their  friends,  the  Moderates  had 
obtained  complete  control  in  the  Scottish  Assembly.  Their 
indifference  to  both  the  independence  of  the  church  and 
to  theological  doctrines  was  rooted  in  a  carelessness  to  any 
deeper  godliness  than  morality  of  outer  life.  It  therefore 
behooved  the  American  church  to  guard  the  entrance  to 
its  ministry  from  these  quarters,  and  the  New  Side  pro- 
posed to  effect  this  by  reserving  to  the  Synod  the  right 
to  admit  them  finally.  Before  the  division  of  1741  it  was 
they  who  had  been  sticklers  for  the  rights  of  the  Presby- 
teries over  against  the  Synod — a  part  now  adopted  by  the 
Old  Side  brethren  in  repeated  protests,  which  also  pointed 
out  the  danger  of  causing  ministers  from  abroad  to  set 
up  separate  Presbyteries.  A  compromise  was  reached  in 
1774,  by  which  the  Presbyteries  were  admonished  to  exer- 
cise great  care,  and  required  to  make  a  special  report  to 


52  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

Synod  of  every  case,  and  to  transmit  the  credentials  of  the 
persons  admitted,  while  Synod  reserved  the  power  to  annul 
their  admission. 

Less  obtrusive,  but  of  more  lasting  importance,  was  the 
growing  difficulty  as  to  the  psalmody  of  the  church,  and 
that  first  in  the  congregations  which  had  been  connected 
with  the  Synod  of  New  York,  where  the  disposition  to  a 
change  was'  greatest.  It  was  especially  in  the  Second 
Church  of  Philadelphia,  organized  of  those  who  sympa- 
thized with  the  Awakening,  and  long  the  pastoral  charge 
of  Gilbert  Tennent,  that  the  dissension  was  manifest,  a 
minority  appealing  from  Session  to  Presbytery,  and  from 
Presbytery  to  Synod,  against  ''  the  introduction  of  Dr. 
Watts's  imitation  of  the  Psalms."  The  Synod  had  already 
sanctioned  its  use  in  churches  which  preferred  it,  and 
refused  to  recall  that  approval,  while  it  sent  Drs.  Wit'her- 
spoon,  Rodgers,  and  Macwhorter  to  talk  the  recalcitrant 
party  into  a  different  judgment.  They  reported,  but  not 
in  terms  which  indicated  their  success.  The  difficulty  was 
made  more  acute  by  the  unwise  language  Dr.  Watts  had 
employed  in  the  preface  to  his  version,  denying  the  fit- 
ness of  the  Psalms  for  Christian  use  until  they  had  been 
adapted  to  *'  the  language  of  the  New  Testament." 

The  proceedings  of  the  Synod  during  this  period  are 
more  barren  than  we  should  have  expected  of  references 
to  public  affairs,  as  it  was  the  time  of  those  successive  and 
acute  struggles  with  Great  Britain  over  the  power  of  taxa- 
tion which  finally  precipitated  the  War  for  Independence. 
In  I  766  the  Synod,  on  motion  of  Dr.  Alison,  sent  an  ad- 
dress to  the  king  on  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  Under 
the  surface  of  this  apparent  indifference,  however,  lay  an  in- 
tense concern  in  the  possible  course  of  events  as  affecting 
the  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  the  civil  status  of  the  colonies. 

Thrice  in  the  history  of  the  colonies  preparations  had 


THE  NEED    OE  A    BISHOP. 


53 


been  made  for  the  consecration  of  a  bishop  for  the  British 
colonies  of  America;  and  thrice  the  plan  had  come  to 
naught  through  what  the  anti-prelatists  of  America  re- 
garded as  the  interpositions  of  Providence,  viz.,  the  fall 
of  Archbishop  Laud  in  1640,  the  disgrace  of  the  Earl  of 
Clarendon  in  1667,  and  the  sudden  death  of  Queen  Anne 
in  I  7 14.  In  George  III.  for  the  first  time  the  new  dynasty 
was  represented  by  a  king  of  English  birth  and  sympathies, 
and  withal  a  zealous  churchman,  while  in  Thomas  Seeker, 
the  primate  of  Canterbury,  and  Beilby  Porteus,  Bishop  of 
Chester  and  the  king's  chaplain — himself  a  native  of  Vir- 
ginia— the  American  Episcopal  Church  had  two  zealous 
friends  at  court.  To  prepare  the  way  for  the  new  step. 
Dr.  T.  B.  Chandler,  of  Burlington,  whose  great  abilities 
certainly  designated  him  as  the  occupant  of  the  proposed 
see,  pubHshed  **  An  Appeal  to  the  Public  in  Behalf  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  America"  (New  York,  1767),  show- 
ing the  hardships  it  endured  for  want  of  a  bishop.  No 
discipline  was  maintained  over  clergy  or  people ;  the  rite 
of  confirmation  could  be  enjoyed  only  by  those  who  could 
make  the  journey  to  England ;  the  same  journey  must  be 
undertaken  by  all  candidates  for  holy  orders,  and  by  rea- 
son of  wars,  pestilences,  and  shipwrecks  one  in  five  of  these 
never  returned.  He  declared  that  American  Episcopalians 
desired  no  power  over  their  brethren  of  other  communions. 
Their  bishop  would  be  supported  by  their  own  gifts,  not 
by  compulsory  tithes,  and  he  would  claim  no  such  jurisdic- 
tion as  EngHsh  bishops'  courts  (until  1857)  exercised  over 
marriages,  divorces,  wills,  and  other  questions  affected  by 
canon  law. 

In  the  controversy  this  provoked  the  hardships  were 
admitted ;  nor  was  it  necessary  to  call  into  question  the 
excellent  intentions  of  American  Episcopalians.  But  even 
they  could  give  no  security  against  the  enactment  of  a 


54  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

general  tithe  law  and  the  establishment  of  prelatical  juris- 
diction by  the  British  Parliament,  either  at  once  or  at  some 
early  date. 

Point  was  given  to  these  apprehensions  by  recollections 
of  the  stratagem  practiced  by  Governor  Fletcher  to  effect 
the  estabhshment  of  episcopacy  in  New  York.  At  a  time 
when  the  chaplain  of  the  forces  was  the  only  Episcopal 
minister  in  the  colony,  he  induced  the  colonial  legislature 
to  pass  an  act  {1693)  for  the  employment  of  **  able  Protest- 
ant ministers  "  for  the  different  inhabited  parishes.  Then, 
acting  on  the  principle  C^ljils  regio,  ejus  religio,  and  in  the 
face  of  the  protest  of  the  legislature,  he  interpreted  this  to 
mean  exclusively  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England,  as 
no  others  were  of  the  same  communion  with  William  III. ! 
He  and  his  successors,  and  other  zealous  Episcopalians, 
aided  by  the  English  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  hastened  to  provide  episcopally  ordained  clergymen 
even  for  the  thoroughly  Puritan  churches  on  Long  Island, 
whose  houses  of  worship  they  seized  on  the  ground  that 
these  had  been  erected  by  a  public  tax,  and  were  therefore 
the  property  of  the  Established  Church.  And  in  i  703  the 
Episcopalian  vestry  of  Philadelphia  waited  on  Lord  Corn- 
bury,  governor  of  New  York,  and  expressed  their  hopes 
that  his  cousin,  Queen  Anne,  would  extend  the  benefits 
of  his  government  to  Pennsylvania. 

These  transactions  emphasized  to  the  Puritan  and  Pres- 
byterian churches  the  dangers  to  religious  equality  attend- 
ant on  the  connection  with  England.     The  Ulster  immi- 
grants naturally  would  recall  the  legal   establishment  of 
prelacy  in  their  native  province,  with  tithes  and  episcopal^ 
courts,  at  a  time  when  four  out  of  five  of  its  Protestant  | 
inhabitants  were  Presbyterians  ;  and  they  remembered  how  | 
their  fathers  had  been  summoned  before  those  courts  on  the  ' 
charge  of  living  in  fornication  with  their  own  wives,  because 


A    JOINT   CONVENTION.  55 

they  had  not  been  married  with  a  ring  by  an  Episcopalian^ 
rector.  These  experiences  fitted  them  to  welcome  inde- 
pendence as  the  final  disappearance  of  a  peril  which  had 
overhung  them  ever  since  the  young  king's  accession.  It 
is  not  without  significance  that  Presbyterian  Synod  and 
the  Connecticut  Association  held  a  joint  convention  by 
delegates  from  1766  till  1776,  and  that  the  Synod  of  1775 
promptly  accepted  the  leadership  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, expressly  leaving  to  ''  that  august  body  "  the  choice 
of  a  fast-day  to  be  held  in  view  of  '*  the  alarming  state  of 
public  affairs."  To  those  who  have  looked  below  the  sur- 
face it  is  clear  that  ecclesiastical  considerations  were  as 
active  in  promoting  the  revolt  of  the  colonies  as  were  the 
disputes  over  revenue.  Connection  with  a  '*  mother-coun- 
try "  in  which  church  and  state  had  a  common  head,  and 
were  controlled  by  the  same  legislature,  carried  with  it 
other  perils  than  those  of  fiscal  exaction. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

INDEPENDENCE   AND    REORGANIZATION,   1 776-89. 

(jThe  period  of  the  War  of  Independence  is  acknowledged 
on  all  hands  to  have  been  one  of  disaster  to  the  spiritual 
condition  of  the  country.  In  part  this  was  due  to  the  mix- 
ture of  ecclesiastical  considerations  in  the  motives  of  the 
contest.  These  did  not  raise  it  to  the  horrible  dignity  of 
a  war  of  religion,  but  they  brought  strife  into  the  sanctuary 
of  peace,  and  they  prompted  to  willful  injuries  to  church 
property.  The  fact  that  the  Congregationalists,  Presby- 
terians, Reformed,  Lutherans,  and  Baptists  as  a  whole 
Xvere  on  the  patriotic  side,  while  the  Episcopalians  and  the 
Methodists  in  the  main  sided  with  the  mother-countryA 
which  also  possessed  the  sympathy  and  quiet  cooperation 
of  the  majority  of  the  Friends,  was  recognized  in  the 
conduct  of  hostilities.  When  the  British  troops  entered 
an  American  town  they  were  pretty  sure  to  seize  on  the 
patriotic  churches  and  convert  them  into  barracks,  hos- 
pitals, or  stables,  leaving  them  in  a  state  of  wreck  at  their 
departure.  The  patriot  troops  naturally  would  retaliate 
on  the  Episcopal  churches  as  they  had  opportunity. 

Only  the  Highlanders,  who  had  settled  at  Cape  Fear 
and  some  other  places  of  North  Carolina  after  the  rebellion 
of  1745,  broke  the  unanimity  with  which  the  Presbyterians 
of  America — Scotch,  Scotch- Irish,  Welsh,  and  Puritan — 
supported  the  cause  of  independence.  The  Synod  of  i  783 
congratulates  the  church  on  *'  the  general  and  almost  uni- 
versal attachment  of  the  Presbyterian  body  to  the  cause 

56 


PRESBYTERIAN  PATRIOTISM.  57 

of  liberty,"  as  ''confessed  by  the  complaints  and  resent- 
ment of  the  common  enemy."  It  points  to  "our  burnt 
and  wasted  churches,  and  our  plundered  dwellings "  as 
"an  earnest  of  what  we  must  have  suffered"  had  the 
issue  of  the  war  been  different.  Dr.  Inglis,  the  Tory  rec- 
tor of  Trinity  Church,  wrote  in  1776:  "I  do  not  know 
one  Presbyterian  minister,  nor  have  I  been  able,  after 
strict  inquiry,  to  hear  of  any,  who  did  not,  by  preaching 
and  every  effort  in  their  power,  promote  all  the  measures 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  however  extravagant."  There 
was,  indeed,  one  minister  in  the  Synod  of  New  England 
who  embraced  the  British  side  of  the  controversy,  and 
joined  the  royal  army.  The  Synod  deposed  him,  and  sus- 
pended another  of  its  members  until  he  brought  a  certifi- 
cate of  his  loyalty  from  the  State  of  New  Hampshire. 

/^Dr.  Witherspoon,  along  with  several  other  Presbyterians, 
sat  in  the  Continental  Congress,  and  voted  for  independ- 
ence. ;  Charles  Thomson,  an  elder  in  the  session  of  the 
First  Church,  was  its  trusted  secretary,  and  by  his  pro- 
verbial truthfulness  gave  additional  weight  to  its  proclama- 
tions and  gazettes.  George  Duffield  shared  with  William 
White  the  duties  and  honors  of  the  chaplaincy.  The  wife 
of  James  Caldwell,  of  Elizabeth — the  minister  who  brought 
the  patriot  troops  an  armful  of  psalm-books  when  their 
wadding  gave  out — was  assassinated  by  a  Tory,  and  he 
himself  was  shot  by  a  drunken  sentinel  while  on  chaplain's 
duty  ;  and  John  Rosbrugh,  of  Allentown,  "  was  barbarously 
murdered  by  the  enemy  at  Trenton,"  in  cold  blood  after 
he  had  surrendered.  George  Duffield  had  at  least  one  nar- 
row escape,  and  on  the  head  of  John  Murray,  of  Boothbay, 
was  set  a  reward  as  great  as  on  those  of  Samuel  Adams 
and  John  Hancock. 

The  Synod  of  1778  met  at  Bedminster  because  Phila- 
delphia was  "  in  possession  of  the  enemy."     The  Tories 


58  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

complained  that  the  fast-days  kept  by  Presbyterians  and 
Puritans  were  used  especially  to  keep  alive  the  opposition 
to  English  policy.  On  the  calls  to  observe  these  I  find 
constant  reference  to  the  decay  of  piety,  the  gross  immo- 
ralities which  so  commonly  attend  a  state  of  war,  and  the 
spread  of  irreligion.  In  the  twenty  years  before  the  war 
there  had  been  a  perceptible  decay  of  religious  earnestness.) 
The  white-heat  methods  of  the  Awakening  had  been  fol- 
lowed by  the  usual  reaction,  which  attests  how  much  of 
the  temporal  and  the  human  had  been  blended  with  what 
was  of  God  in  it,  and  therefore  was  found  lasting.  The 
disputes  with  the  "  mother-country  "  had  diverted  atten- 
tion from  eternal  to  temporal  interests.  The  churches  of 
America  were  ill  fit  to  stand  the  strain  of  a  time  of  war, 
and  the  temptations  it  offered  to  the  malevolent  passions. 
Not  all  the  patriotic  ministers  showed  the  calmness  and 
good-will  which  marked  Dr.  John  Rodgers,  of  New  York, 
the  friend  and  trusted  adviser  of  Washington,  who,  in  his 
years  of  exile  from  his  own  charge,  subordinated  every 
other  consideration  to  his  work  in  the  ministry  of  recon- 
ciliation. 

The  peril  was  much  increased  by  the  alliance,  which 
brought  groups  of  French  officers  into  contact  with  the 
people  in  every  important  seaport,  and  with  the  army  at 
large.  The  frivolous  and  scoffing  deism  of  the  school  of 
K^oltaire  was  thus  naturalized  in  America,  and  an  irreligious 
tone  began  to  pervade  its  society,  especially  its  public 
lifey  Religion  was  valued,  if  at  all,  as  a  supplement  to 
the  jail  and  the  police  ;  belief  in  a  disclosure  of  God  to  his 
creatures  was  thought  a  jestworthy  superstition. 

'Besides  these  gravest  losses  in  the  character  and  temper 
of  the  people,  the  churches  suft'ered  much  disorganization. 
Their  buildings  were  torn  dowiTjor  diverted  for  a  time  to 
other  uses  in  a  way  which  involved  great  loss.  '  Princeton 


BEYOND    THE   ALLEGHANIES.  59 

College  was  closed  for  years,  thus  interrupting  the  prep- 
aration of  young  ministers.  It  was  almost  impossible  for 
many  pastors  to  obtain  the  means  of  supporting  their 
families,  especially  in  the  districts  reached  by  the  war. 

Yet  in  the  face  of  discouragements  of  all  sorts,  the  rou- 
tine of  the  church's  work  was  kept  up  in  the  Presbyterian 
bodies,  and  in  the  Synod  some  forty  candidates  were 
ordained  to  the  ministry.  In  the  New  England  States, 
indeed,  the  year  1778  marks  the  highest  point  reached  by 
Presbyterian  growth,  and  the  following  decade  the  begin- 
nings of  decay,  as  but  one  new  church  was  organized, 
while  several  were  dissolved;  and  in  1782  the  Synod  of 
New  England,  in  view  of  its  *'  broken  circumstances,"  was 
dissolved  to  form  a  Presbytery. 

/in  1 78 1  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  organ- 
ized the  Presbytery  of  Redstone  in  western  Pennsylvania^ 
When  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1762  threw  open  this  region 
to  undisputed  settlement,  'the  Scotch-Irish  had  poured 
across  the  Alleghany  ranges  to  and  beyond  what  is  now 
the  Ohio  lineT)  In  i  "]66  Charles  Beatty — who  as  a  young 
Irish  peddler  had  startled  William  Tennent  at  Neshaminy 
by  offering  his  wares  in  good  Latin — and  George  Duffield 
had  been  sent  by  Synod  to  preach  to  the  new  settlements 
and  report  on  their  spiritual  condition.  But  not  until  1774 
was  there  a  minister  among  them  to  stay ;  and  two  years 
later  John  Macmillan  accepted  a  call  to  this  field.  He  was 
a  man  who  knew  how  to  convert  such  a  population  into  a 
self-supporting  community  in  church  matters,  by  raising 
up  laborers  at  home.  Largely  to  him  and  his  pupils  is  it 
due  that  (this  became  the  most  Presbyterian  region  of  the 
whole  country,  and  the  most  conservative  in  its  influence 
on  the  church  at  large.)  Yet  by  1781  there  were  but  four^ 
ministers  in  the  Redstone  Presbytery,  which,  like  Hanover, 
was  to  be  a  mother  of  Presbyteries.      Not   until  i  790  was 


6o  .  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

the  first  house  of  worship  erected,  congregations  meeting 
in  the  woods  in  summer,  and  in  private  houses  in  winter. 
In  1782  Matthew  Henderson,  of  the  Associate  Presbytery, 
settled  in  this  region,  and  gathered  several  small  congre- 
gations, who  were  to  share  in  the  troubles  which  attended 
the  union  with  the  Covenanters. 

With  the  return  of  peace  in  1783  the  ecclesiastical  rela- 
tions of  America  took  a  new  aspect.    (The  demand  was 

/now  made  for  absolute  religious  equality,  such  as  existed 
in  Rhode  Island  and  Pennsylvania ;  and  it  was  secured  by 
degrees..  The  battle  was  hardest  in  Virginia,  where  the 
Presbytery  of  Hanover  took  the  lead  in  demanding  it,  and 
was  vigorously  supported  by  the  Baptists.  The  doctrine 
that  religion  needs  nothing  from  the  state  but  a  general 
protection  was  now  enunciated  in  terms  which  would  have  . 
shocked  the  Westminster  Assembly,  who  **  did  crie  down  " 
Thomas  Goodwin's  plea  for  a  general  toleration.  The 
colonial  system  lasted  longest  in  New  England,  where  the 
**  standing  order"  was  abolished  in  Connecticut  in  1 816, 
and  in  Massachusetts  in  1833. 

(One  effect  of  ecclesiastical  independence  was  the  ter- 
mination of  the  monopoly  of  printing  the  English  Bible, 
which  had  been  vested  in  the  king's  printers  in  London.) 
The  Continental  Congress  first  proposed  to  have  an  edi- 
tion printed  under  its  auspices,  and  failing  in  that  for  want 
of  type,  ordered  the  importation  of  a  large  quantity,  vin 
1782  Robert  Aitken,  of  PhiladelphiaNan  elder  in  the  Asso- 
ciate Church/brought  out  an  edition,  which  both  Congress 
and  Synod  commended  to  the  public. 

fAs  the  ties  were  now  severed  which  connected  the  Prot- 
estant churches  of  America  with  those  of  Europe,  we  find 
a  general  movement  toward  their  organization  as  national 

.  churches.     The   Episcopal   Church,    no   longer   especially 
fa\'ored  by  law  and  influence  in  high  places,  now  obtained 


COVENANTERS  AND   SECEDERS   UNITE.  6 1 

bishops  not  only  without  opposition,  but  with  the  friendly 
cooperation  of  other  Americans.  The  Dutch  and  Ger- 
man Reformed  churches  estabhshed  General  Synods,  and 
declared  their  independence  of  foreign  judicatories.  The 
Methodist  societies  in  1784  cast  off  the  personal  control 
still  claimed  by  John  Wesley  over  all  who  bore  the  name. 
The  Congregationalist  churches  of  New  England  began  to 
draw  together  into  General  Associations  for  each  State, 
after  the  Connecticut  model.  The  Separate,  the  Free- 
Will  and  some  other  branches  of  the  Baptists  began  to 
organize  into  general  conferences.  The  Roman  Catholics 
made  their  first  approach  to  a  national  organization  by 
the  consecration  of  John  Carroll  as  Bishop  of  Baltimore. 

The  Presbyterians  felt  a  similar  impulse.  It  was  shown 
first  in  the  attempt  to  consolidate  the-  two  conservative 
bodies,  the  Covenanters  and  the  Seceders.  As  the  former 
promptly  acknowledged  the  new  government  of  the  United 
States,  and  thus  ceased  to  be  "an  anti-government  party," 
it  was  felt  that  the  chief  obstacle  to  their  fellowship  with 
the  Seceders  had  been  removed.  As  early  as  1777  a  con- 
ference on  the  subject  was  begun.  The  Covenanters,  how- 
ever, had  embraced  a  theory  of  civil  government  and  its 
direct  dependence  on  Christ's  mediatorial  headship,  which 
justified  their  previous  attitude  toward  the  government  of 
Great  Britain,  and  this  they  now  showed  no  disposition  to 
abandon.  As  one  of  them  said :  *'  You  may  agree  to  what 
propositions  you  please,  but  I  will  agree  to  none  but  with 
this  interpretation — that  all  that  power  and  ability  civil 
rulers  have  are  from  Christ,  the  Prophet  of  the  Covenant 
of  grace,  and  that  all  that  food  and  raiment  mankind  enjoy 
are  from  Christ,  the  Priest  of  the  Covenant."  To  these 
positions  the  Associate  Presbytery  of  Pennsylvania  refused 
their  assent;  but' in  1780  the  much  smaller  Presbytery  of 
New  York  came  to  terms  of  union.     ^Through  the  infiu- 


62  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

ence  of  one  of  its  members^  Robert  Annan,  of  Wallkill,  the 
question  was  called  up  again  in  the  other  Presbytery,  and 
a  union  carried  in  the  meeting  of  June,  1782,  by  the  cast- 
ing vote  of  the  moderator,  James  Proudfit,  thus(constituting 
me  Associate  Reformed  Church  of  America?  The  minority 
of  two  ministers  and  four  elders  protested,  and  appealed 
to  the  Scotch  Associate  Synod ;  but  the  majority  refused, 
with  some  reason,  to  admit  an  appeal  to  a  foreign  judi- 
cature. The  appeal,  however,  was  carried  to  the  Scotch 
Synod,  which  in  1 785  recognized  the  protesters  as  the 
Associate  Presbytery  of  Pennsylvania,  and  sent  them,  in 
Thomas  Beveridge  and  James  Anderson,  able  assistants, 
to  rebuild  the  denomination.  The  latter,  in  1 784,  pre- 
pared by  direction  of  Presbytery  their  "  Testimony  for  the 
Doctrine  and  Order  of  the  Church  of  Christ,"  to  which 
subscription  w^as  required,  f  As  the  Scotch  Reformed  Pres- 
bytery equally  refused  to  recognize  the  union,  and  took 
steps  in  1789  to  reconstitute  their  American  churches,  the 
transaction  resulted  in  adding  another  to  the  number  of 
Presbyterian  subdivisions),  as  indeed  had  been  predicted 
by  some  who  opposed  it.  It  did,  how^ever,  establish  an 
intermediate  body  between  the  strict  conservatives  and 
the  Presbyterian  Synod,  and  thus  helped  to  an  approach 
from  each  side.  The  Associate  Reformed  Church,  indeed, 
had  been  formed  out  of  very  conservative  elements,  but  on 
the  principle  of  distinguishing  between  lesser  and  greater, 
essentials  and  inessentials,  in  the  matters  which  had  been 
reasons  for  division.  And  this  character  it  always  retained. 
A  complaint  from  the  Reformed  Dutch  Classis  of  New 
Brunswick  having  opened  the  question  of  the  mutual  rela- 
tion of  the  American  churches  of  the  Reformed  faith  and 
order,  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  took 
advantage  of  it  to  secure  a  conference  on  "  matters  of  gen- 
eral utility  and  friendship."     This  was  extended  afterward 


THE  NEW  CONSTITUTION.  63 

to  include  the  Associate  Reformed  Synod  in  the  confer- 
ence, and  to  cover  the  suggestion  of  "  a  plan  for  some 
kind  of  union  among  them."  The  conference  was  held  in 
October,  1785,  and  was  free,  full,  and  friendly,  but  led  to 
nothing  more  than  a  plan  for  annual  conferences  by  dele- 
gates, like  that  with  the  Connecticut  Association  before 
the  war. 

One  obstacle  to  any  immediate  action  was  the  prospect 
of  an  extensive  change  in  the  constitution  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church.  It  was  felt  that  it  had  outgrown  an  arrange- 
ment which  required  or  assumed  the  attendance  of  the 
whole  body  of  ministers  at  a  single  point,  and  that  much 
was  to  be  gained  by  the  union  of  neighboring  Presbyteries 
in  subordinate  synods.  By  erecting  a  delegated  General 
Assembly,  subdivided  into  Synods,  as  these  were  into  Pres- 
byteries, the  American  church  would  also  more  distinctly 
announce  its  new  standing  as  a  national  church,  ready  to 
take  under  its  care  those  who  sought  its  communion  in 
every  part  of  the  country. 

The  first  step  was  taken  by  the  Synod  of  1786,  which 
adopted  a  plan  for  rearranging  the  bounds  of  the  Presby- 
teries. This  increased  their  number  from  twelve  to  six- 
teen, and  grouped  these  into  four  Synods,  with  a  proviso 
as  to  the  number  of  ministers  and  of  ruling  elders  each 
Presbytery  should  elect  annually  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America. 

This  Synod  also  ordered  the  preparation  of  "a  book  of/ 
discipline  and  government  .  .  .  accommodated  to  the  state 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  America  "  by  a  committee 
of  which  Witherspoon  was  chairman,  and  Macwhorter, 
Rodgers,  Duffield,  Sproat,  Robert  Smith,  Alison,  and  Ewing 
were  the  clerical  members.  For  nearly  a  century  the 
method  of  transmitting  grave  constitutional  questions  ''  in 


64  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

overture  "  to  the  Presbyteries  had  been  in  use  in  the  Kirk 
of  Scotland,  but  had  not  been  adopted  by  the  American 
Synod,  as  it  was  not  a  delegated  body.  The  committee, 
however,  were  instructed  to  distribute  three  hundred  copies 
of  their  Plan  among  the  Presbyteries,  and  every  Presbytery 
was  required  to  "report  its  observations  in  writing"  to  the 
Synod  of  1787.  In  that  Synod  a  session  was  assigned  for 
hearing  these  ''  observations  "  :  but  the  minutes  have  no 
record  of  their  purport,  or  even  of  their  being  actually 
read,  except  that  those  of  the  Presbytery  of  Baltimore 
were  presented  and  heard  the  next  morning.  We  have 
no  means,  therefore,  of  ascertaining  the  degree  of  unanim- 
ity with  which,  the  Plan  was  received  by  the  Presbyteries, 
nor  could  their  ''  observations  "  amount  to  a  direct  vote 
on  its  acceptance  or  rejection.  The  committee  itself  was 
not  quite  unanimous.  Dr.  Matthew  Wilson,  although  of 
the  Old  Side  by  training  and  conviction,  offered  a  substi- 
tute which  would  have  established  congregational  instead 
of  "classical"  Presbyteries.  The  Presbytery  of  Suffolk 
(Long  Island)  proposed  to  separate  from  the  church,  on 
the  ground  that  the  Plan  was  impracticable,  and  its 
churches  would  not  comply  with  it ;  but  it  was  persuaded 
to  withdraw  the  proposal. 

The  Synod  discussed  the  Plan  in  detail,  made  impor- 
tant alterations,  and  ordered  the  distribution  of  a  thousand 
copies,  as  amended,  among  the  Presbyteries,  "  for  their 
consideration,  and  the  consideration  of  the  churches  under 
their  care."  In  the  next  Synod  we  hear  of  three  memorials 
^,  from  congregations,  but  none  from  Presbyteries.  ;  After  a 
Av  full  discussion  and  further  amendment,  the  whole  Plan, — 
embracing  the  Confession  of  Faith  (amended  in  the  matter 
of  the  civil  magistrate's  relation  to  the  church),  the  Longer 
Catechism  (with  an  amendment  as  to  toleration),  the 
Shorter  Catechism,  the  Directory  for  Worship  (radically 


LAYING   BOARDS   ON   THE   FUTURE.  65 

altered  and  not  for  the  better),  and  a  Form  of  Govern- 
ment and  Discipline, — was  adopted  and  ratified  finally,  by 
what  majority  the  minutes  do  not  say.")  This  final  vote 
was  taken  in  a  Synod  of  thirty-five  ministers  and  eight  poy 
elders.  One  hundred  and  thirty-six  ministers  entitled  and 
expected  to  be  present  were  not  so ;  and  some  four  hun- 
dred church  sessions  had  no  ruling  elder  to  represent 
them.  The  language  of  the  minutes,  "  as  now  altered 
and  amended,"  indicates  that  what  was  finally  voted  upon 
differed  from  both  the  first  draft  sent  to  the  Presbyteries 
in  1786,  and  the  revised  draft  sent  to  the  Presbyteries  and 
churches  in  1787.  Dr.  Ashbel  Green  says  that  ''many 
articles  of  the  constitution  as  finally  sanctioned  remained 
as  then  agreed  upon."  But  even  the  name  of  the  General 
Assembly  was  settled  in  the  Synod  of  1788.   {^-' 

Yet  it  was  enacted  not  only  that  **  the  Form  of  Govern- 
ment and  Discipline  and  the  Confession  of  Faith  "  should 
be  that  of  the  church,  but  that  they  should  *'  continue  to 
be  our  constitution  and  the  confession  of  our  faith  and 
practice  unalterable,  unless  two  thirds  of  the  Presbyteries 
under  the  care  of  the  General  Assembly  shall  propose 
alterations  or  amendments,  and  such  alterations  or  amend- 
ments shall  be  agreed  to  and  enacted  by  the  General  As- 
sembly." Attempts  to  lay  bonds  upon  the  future  b\' 
constitutional  enactment  are  a  weakness  characteristic  of 
Americans.  But  never  was  the  attempt  made  by  a  body 
possessed  of  less  prescriptive  right  to  do  so ;  and  in  this 
case  no  more  was  forbidden  than  that  a  national  church 
should  freely  give  utterance  to  its  actual  faith  in  authori- 
tative form ! 

C  It  has  been  claimed  that  this  Presbyterian  form  of  gov- 
ernment was  the  model  after  which  that  of  the  United 
States  was  formed.""^  The  same  claim,  I  believe,  has  been 
put  forward  for  every  other  form  of  church  government 


66  THE   PRESBYTERIAXS.  [Chap.  vi. 

tlien  in  existence  in  America.  The  Synod  of  1787  cer- 
tainly was  debating  and  amending  the  report  of  Wither- 
spoon  and  his  associates,  at  the  time  when  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  was  discussing  in  the  same  city  the  best 
form  for  a  new  government  of  the  country.  Alexander 
Hamilton,  James  Madison,  and  James  Wilson,  the  three 
leading  debaters  of  the  Convention,  although  none  of 
them  Presbyterians,  may  well  have  been  familiar  with  the 
Scottish  methods.  And^  certain  vague  resemblance  exists 
between  Congress,  legislature,  and  county  government  on 
the  one  side,  and  Assembly,  Synod,  and  Presbytery  on  the 
other.)  There,  however,  the  likeness  ends^  These  eccle- 
siastical bodies  are  not  legislatures,  but  only  courts  for 
the  interpretation  of  law.  The  legal  background,  also,  of 
Presbyterian  procedure  is  the  Scottish  law,  which  in  turn 
rests  on  the  Civil  Law  of  Rome.  That  of  the  American 
constitution  is  the  Common  Law  of  England,  which  always 
was  most  jealous  of  any  intrusion  of  the  Civil  Law.  Each 
of  the  superior  courts  of  the  Presbyterian  system  possesses 
an  authority  over  the  lower,  which  the  States  never  have 
conceded  to  the  national  Government.  And,  lastly,  the 
democratic  element  in  the  American  Constitution  has  no 
real  correspondent  in  the  Presbyterian  system.  Its  per- 
manent eldership,  and  its  parochial  bishops,  with  seats  or 
representation  in  its  church  courts  even  when  they  have 
no  pastoral  charge,  are  aristocratic  rather  than  democratic. 
This  last  practice,  I  may  add,  is  unknown  to  the  Reformed 
churches  of  Europe. 

'  The  one  feature  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  suggests  a  Presbyterian  influence,  is  the  method  of 
amendment  by  reference  to  and  consent  of  the  States. 
This,  however,  was  not  yet  in  use  in  the  American  church 
when  the  Constitution  was  drafted/)  If  copied  at  all,  it 
must  have  been  directly  from  the  constitution  of  the  Kirk 


PRESBYTERIAN  EXAMPLE   EOLLOUED.  6 J 

of  Scotland,  into  which  it  was  introduced   by  the  Barrier 
Act  of  1695. 

(It  is  not  by  any  external  copying  of  features  that  the 
two  plans  of  government  are  related.  It  is  through  both 
being  the  fruit  of  the  same  great  national  impulse  to  give 
the  social  life  its  complete  expression  by  a  polity  of  national 
dimensions  and  spirit. 

It  is  not  in  the  field  of  political  but  in  that  of  ecclesias- 
tical life  that  the  Presbyterian  method  of  synodical  govern- 
ment attains  a  significance  far  wider  than  the  reach  of  the 
denomination.  The  Presbyterian  Synod  of  colonial  times 
stood  entirely  alone.  It  was  the  only  instance  in  which 
the  collective  wisdom  and  discretion  of  the  whole  body 
was  brought  to  bear  continuously  upon  the  aft'airs  of  an 
American  church.  The  Congregationalist  churches  of  Con- 
necticut, indeed,  had  made  an  approach  to  synodical  gov- 
ernment, but  this  was  confined  to  the  State.  If  to-day  the 
interests  and  affairs  of  every  great  Protestant  denomination 
in  the  land  are  in  the  hands  of  conference,  convention,  or 
synod  of  some  sort,  meeting  periodically,  and  with  mini- 
sterial and  lay  members  voting  equally,  it  may  fairly  be 
claimed  that  all  have  walked  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Pres- 
byterians whose  Synod  is  the  ancestor  of  all  these  no  less 
than  of  the  General  Assembly  itself. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

REVIVAL    AND    DISSENSION,  I  789- I  8  lO. 

ir 

Great  as  always  has  been  the  influence  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  on  tlie  reUgious  Hfe  of  the  country,  it  prob- 
ably at  no  time  has  been  so  dominant  as  in  the  closing  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century .\  The  Puritan  churches  were 
localized  in  New  England,  with  a  growing  consciousness 
of  their  distinctness,  as  a  group  of  churches  and  of  States, 
from  the  rest  of  the  country.  The  Episcopal  Church, 
which  had  gone  into  the  War  for  Independence  one  of  the 
strongest,  had  come  out  one  of  the  weakest,  through  tak- 
ing the  wrong  side.  It  had  lost  heavily  by  disendowment, 
by  desertions,  and  by  migration  to  the  British  colonies  of 
Nova  Scotia  and  Canada ;  and  it  was  still  struggling  to 
bring  opposing  tendencies  into  cooperation,  and  to  perfect 
its  own  organization.  The  Methodist  Church  was  still  in 
its  feeble  infancy,  having  with  Asbury  retired  to  private 
life  during  the  progress  of  the  struggle.  The  Baptist 
churches,  although  they  had  gained  heavily  in  both  New 
England  and  the  South  as  a  consequence  of  the  Great 
Awakening,  had  achieved  their  growth  mainly  among  the 
poor  and  uneducated  classes ;  and  had  accepted  the  ideal 
of  a  "  lowly  ministry  "  of  uneducated  men.  The  German 
churches  were  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  nation  by  their 
persistence  in  the  use  of  a  foreign  language.  The  newer 
sects,  Free-Will  Baptists,  "  Christians,"  Universalists,  Uni- 
tarians, and  Shakers,  were  great  only  in  their  hopes, 
v-f  The  Presbyterian  Church  was  strong  in  a  learned  minis- 

68 


f- 


PRESBYTERIAX  STRENGTH  AND   LOSSES.  69 

tryl  graduates  not  only  of  Princeton  but  of  the  Scotch  and 
the  New  England  universities.  Its  members  had  borne 
the  brunt  of  the  struggle  for  independence  from  the  Hud- 
son to  the  Savannah.  It  had  shared  with  the  Baptists  the 
honor  of  the  struggle  for  religious  equality  against  Episco- 
palian privilege  in  the  Southern  States,  and  had  sustained 
it  alone  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey.^  It  had  the  sup- 
port of  the  large  Scotch- Irish  element  in  the  Middle  and 
Southern  States,  and  of  the  New  England  overflow  west- 
ward across  the  Hudson.  Qt  was  more  homogeneous  and 
harmonious  than  ever  before,  the  Old  Side  men  and  their 
traditions  having  died  out,  and  the  methods  of  the  Great 
Awakening  having  been  heartily  accepted?)  It  had  shown 
its  staying  power  in  maintaining  a  unique  synodical  author- 
ity over  its  pastors  and  people,  in  holding  up  the  standard 
of  Calvinistic  orthodoxy  in  an  age  far  more  alien  to  that 
mode  of  thought  than  our  own,  and  in  extending  its  mis- 
sionary labors  to  newly  settled  districts.  '.Not  only  did  it 
flourish  in  the  older  States,  but  the  new  territories  beyond 
the  Appalachian  ranges  seemed  especially  its  own. 

Had  the  church  been  able  to  maintain  this  position  in 
the  nation's  religious  life,  and  had  it  even  been  able  to 
retain  in  its  membership  the  children  of  the  great  Ulster 
immigration  and  to  continue  to  assimilate  the  New  Eng- 
land overflow,  it  would  now  take  rank,  not  as  the  third, 
but  as  the  first,  of  the  great  Protestant  communions  of 
America.  The  ranks  of  the  Baptists  and  the  Methodists, 
of  the  Episcopalians  and  the  Disciples,  have  been  swollen 
at  its  expense.  Of  the  descendants  of  the  Ulster  Presby- 
terians in  America  probably  not  much  above  a  third  are 
to-day  Presbyterian.  However  large  the  membership  and 
extensive  the  influence  of  the  church,  therefore,  it  cannot 
be  called  successful  even  in  holding  its  own,  much  less  in 
aggressive  power. 


70  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  yii. 


I 


It  is  in  the  period  now  under  consideration  that  the 
signs  of  tb+s  partial  failure  are  first  beginning  to  show 
themselves,  and  at  the  same  time  its  reasonsj  (The  first 
of  these  was  the  scholastic  shape  in  which  the  doctrines  of 
the  church  were  presented  in  its  confession  and  catechisms, 
and  the  influence  of  these  upon  preaching  and  teaching!^ 
Calvinism,  as  John  Duncan  well  says,  is  **  a  sheep  in  wolf's 
clothing."  (it  is  sure  to  repel  those  who  for  the  first  time 
have  their  attention  fixed  on  such  questions,  until  further 
thought  brings  them  to  see  that  the  difficulties  which  attend 
any  and  every  view  of  God's  relation  to  the  moral  universe 
are  not  to  be  got  rid  of  by  denying  man's  inmost  depend- 
ence upon  God^  There  are  no  truths  which  require  more 
judicious  andguarded  statement  than  these  ;  and  while  the 
Westminster  divines  were  not  quite  unaware  of  this,  they 
were  far  more  concerned  to  guard  against  logical  incom- 
pleteness of  statement  than  against  the  accumulation  of 
what  is  mere  inference  of  their  own  logic.  In  this  respect 
the  Scottish  "  Confession  of  Faith,"  drafted  by  John  Knox 
in  1560,  is  so  hiuch  superior,  that  its  supersession  by  the 
more  elaborate  and  less  popular  document  was  an  histori- 
cal calamity. 

>4  A  second  difficulty  in  the  church's  way  was  the  rigidity 
of  her  polity  in  the  matter  of  ministerial  education.  She 
was  right  in  setting  up  a  high  ideal,  and  has  benefited  all 
the  churches  of  America  by  this.  She  was  wrong  in  re- 
fusing to  recognize  that  there  are  times  when  a  higher  ex- 
pediency demands  a  temporary  relaxation  of  the  rule.  It 
was  a  just  requirement  for  a  fairly  educated  and  fully 
intelligent  community,  which  enjoyed  the  prosperity  and 
the  leisure  of  a  country  not  newly  settled.  (  On  the  fron- 
tier, however,  and  among  those  who  were  enduring  the 
hardships  and  privations  of  a  new  settlement,  with  but  few 
opportunities  for  even  the  simplest  education,   the  rigid 


THE   ''ASSOCIATED   PRESBYTERIES:'  Ji 

exaction  of  a  collegiate  education  for  every  candidate  for 
the  ministry  was  a  fatal  embarrassment.  ^»  It  is  true  that 
the  Assembly  and  its  Synods  maintained  a  missionary  sys- 
tem of  some  extent,  and  at  times  had  from  forty  to  fifty 
ministers  and  probationers  at  work  in  the  outlying  settle- 
ments of  the  South  and  the  West.  But  even  these  were 
unable  to  overtake  the  demand  for  preachers  and  pastors, 
and  the  Synod  of  1783  flatly  refused  to  sanction  the  licen- 
sure of  less  educated  men,  a  precedent  followed  by  the 
General  Assembly.  It  judged  of  the  needs  of  the  frontiers 
by  the  standard  of  Philadelphia,  and  insisted  (the  people 
said)  on  "  making  men  gentlemen  befo.re  it  made  them 
ministers."  It  thus  left  its  natural  adherents  to  the  more 
adaptable  ministrations  of  the  Methodists  and  the  Baptists.  _ 

(At  the  same  time,  at  the  other  extremity,  on  the  New 
England  frontier,  the  growing  rigor  of  Presbyterian  law 
was  tending  to  alienate  the  Puritan  churches.  Ten  years 
even  before  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  of  1 789  a 
movement  was  begun  to  effect  a  reorganization  of  these 
churches  in  New  Jersey  and  New  York,  whi^i  should  avoid 
equally  the  slackness  of  Congregationalism  and  the  rigidity 
of  Presbyterianism.  Between  i  780  and  1807  four  "  Asso- 
ciated Presbyteries"  were  formed  on  this  footing,  with  a 
confession  of  eighteen  articles  only,  and  claiming  for  Pres- 
bytery no  more  than  power  to  advise  the  churches  under 
its  care.  But  the  movement  shared  the  general  fate  of 
eclectic  compromises.  One  principle  or  the  other  was  sure 
to  get  the  upper  hand.  By  1818-20  the  Associated  Pres- 
byteries were  broken  up,  leaving  pastors  and  churches  to 
find  their  proper  place  in  either  the  Congregationalist  or 
the  Presbyterian  bodies.  The  significance  of  the  move- 
ment was  as  an  indication  that  there  were  limits  to  the 
cooperation  of  the  Puritan  and  the  Presbyterian  elements  ' 
in  the  States  west  of  tlie   Hudson,  and  that  the  dav  was 


72  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

coming  when  "the  New  England  way"  would  be  trans- 
planted to  every  part  of  the  country. 

Yet  that  day  seemed  far  enough  off  when  the  General 
Assembly  and  the  Connecticut  Association  adopted  the 
famous  Plan  of  Union  in  iSoij  Its  terms  showed  that  the 
Assembly  was  not  inclined  to  unreasonable  rigidity  on  this 
side,  possibly  because  it  had  taken  warning  from  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Associated  Presbyteries.  It  practically 
made  the  constituent  parts  of  the  two  systems  interchange- 
able. '■  Churches  of  either  body  might  call  a  pastor  from  the 
other,  and  when  any  dispute  arose  the  appeal  might  be  to 
either  the  Presbytery  or  a  council  chosen  from  both  bodies'. 
Presbyterian  churches  might  be  represented  in  Associations 
by  ruling  elders  and  Congregational  churches  in  Presby- 
teries by  messengers  chosen  in  church  meeting.  A  prac- 
tical test  of  the  spirit  in  which  the  Plan  was  regarded  by 
its  authors  occurred  in  1808,  when  the  Middle  Association 
of  Congregationalists  in  New  York  State  was  invited  to 
become  a  subordinate  division  of  the  Synod  of  Albany, 
with  the  approval  of  the  Assembly,  and  accepted  the  in- 
vitation rather  than  unite  with  others  to  form  a  State  As- 
sociation. 

This  ''  Presbygational  "  system,  as  it  afterward  was  nick- 
named, received  the  approval  of  the  Vermont,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Massachusetts  Associations,  and  had  respect 
especially  to  the  settlement  of  western  New  York  from 
New  England;  but  during  the  half-century  that  it  lasted 
it  was  extended  to  Ohio,  and  to  States  still  farther  west. 
It  brought  into  the  Presbyterian  Church  a  large  num- 
ber of  pastors  and  churches  which  were  more  or  less  in 
touch  with  the  doctrinal  movements  of  New  England, 
and  thus  helped  to  impart  to  AmericajA  Presbyterianism 
that  dual  character  which  resulted  in  the  division  of  1837. 
A  i^The  severest  test  to  which  the  Presbyterian  order  and 


THE    GREAT  REVIVAL.  73 

doctrine  were  subjected  was  associated  with  the  happiest 
events  of  this  period.  From  the  close  of  the  War  for  Inde- 
pendence spiritual  influences  appeared  to  lose  their  hold 
on  the  popular  mind.  Unbelief  became  the  fashion  of  the 
day.  There  was  a  decay  of  zeal  in  the  churches,  and  in 
the  eastern  part  of  Massachusetts  a  rapid  spread  of  Socin- 
ianism.  The  first  signs  of  a  change  came  in  1792,  when 
extensive  revivals  occurred,  especially  in  western  New  Eng- 
land. Then  the  frontier  settlements  of  the  new  States  of 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  were  deeply  moved.  Immorality, 
irreligion,  and  skepticism  abounded  in  this  region.  In  1 793 
the  Kentucky  legislature  voted  to  dispense  with  prayers 
in  its  sessions.  The  churches  and  ministers  were  few,  and 
fewer  still  those  in  whom  was  manifest  "  the  power  of  an 
endless  life."  From  1798,  when  the  revival  began  on  the 
Red  River,  there  hardly  was  a  year  unblessed  ;  but  in  1801 
the  movement  culminated  in  the  Southwest,  and  reached 
nearly  every  part  of  the  country,  on  a  scale  which  recalls 
the  Great  Awakening,  f?  The  movement  overflowed  the 
limits  of  the  places  of  stated  worship,  and  took  an  open- 
air  character,  ^\^ich  recalled  the  labors  of  Whitefield  and 
his  associates.  ^  To  meet  the  needs  of  a  scattered  popula- 
tion great  **  camp  meetings  "  were  held  at  central  places — 
the  first  of  their  kind.;^  At  these  the  lasting  conversions 
were  many,  but  the  infectious  influence  of  excitements  upon 
great  multitudes  found  unhappy  illustrations.  Especially 
in  the  frontier  communities  of  the  Southwest,  where  the 
Scotch- Irish  were  the  chief  settlers,  the  tension  of  newly 
awakened  feeling  was  so  great  as  to  lead  to  manifold  ex- 
travagances and  nervous  disturbances,  resulting  in  con-  / 
vulsive  physical  movements,  the  **  falling  exercise,"  ''the 
jerks,"  and  so  forth.  In  some  cases  hundreds  were  flung 
prostrate,  like  a  grain- field  swept  by  a  hurricane,  or  the 
ground  was  torn  up  by  their  convulsive  stampings. 


74  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

While  Presbyterians  were  in  the  majority  among  both 
preachers  and  people,  the  Methodists  also  were  on  the 
ground.  The  former  generally  labored  to  check  and  re- 
strain these  physical  manifestations ;  the  latter  are  said  to 
have  encouraged  them  as  a  means  of  grace.  The  believers 
in  predestination  insisted  on  rational  conviction  as  essential 
to  a  right  conversion.  The  believers  in  freewill  accepted 
as  satisfactory  conversions  effected  by  processes  which  set 
both  will  and  reason  aside  in  trances  or  in  physical  convul- 
sions. ^  The  hunger  for  preaching  went  far  beyond  the 
power  of  the  ministers  to  meet  it.  Laymen,  even  children, 
were  heard  eagerly,  and  with  powerful  effect. 

In  these  circumstances  the  Presbytery  of  Transylvania, 
and  then  the  Cumberland  Presbytery,  which  in  1802  had 
been  set  off  from  it,  took  the  step  of  licensing  as  preachers 
a  number  of  zealous  young  men,  who  neither  had  obtained 
the  required  amount  of  academic  training  nor  were  able  to  * 
give  an  entire  assent  to  the  teaching  of  the  Westminster 
Confession,  especially  on  the  subjects  of  predestination  and 
perseverance.  Against  this  course  a  minority  of  the  Cum- 
berland Presbytery  protested  and  appealed  to  the  Synod 
of  Kentucky,  which  took  the  unfortunate  step  of  empower- 
ing a  commission  to  deal  with  the  case.  This  body  assumed 
to  itself  powders  and  performed  acts  which  the  General  As- 
sembly of  1807  declared  to  be  "at  least  of  questionable 
regularity."  It  suspended  the  majority  of  the  Presbytery 
and  all  its  licentiates.  The  Synod  stood  by  its  commission 
and  went  still  further.  But  the  Presbytery  compromised 
its  case  by  refusing  to  appeal  in  due  form  to  the  General 
Assembly,  although  this  course  was  suggested  twice  by  the 
Assembly  itself,  which  disclaimed  the  possession  of  original 
jurisdiction.  This,  together  with  the  manifest  irregularities 
in  its  proceedings,  so  much  weakened  its  friends  in  the 
Assembly  of    1809  as    to    lead    to   an    acceptance   of   the 


THE   LESSER   BODIES.  75 

Synod's  explanations  as  fully  satisfactory.  A  year  later 
the  Presbytery  had  become  a  separate  denomination,  which 
grew  rapidly  in  numbers,  in  sobriety  of  method,  and  in 
demand  for  an  educated  ministry.  The  Synod  of  Cumber- 
land, organized  in  181  3,  the  next  year  adopted  a  revision 
of  the  Westminster  Confession^  from  which  ''fatalism,"  or 
what  it  judged  such,  was  eliminated.  Thus  was  constituted 
the  left  wing  of  American  Presbyterianism,  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church.  <^^ 

^The  conservative  bodies  on  the  right  wing  were  growing 
steadily  in  numbers  and  influence^. 

f  (i)  The  Reformed  Presbytery,  reconstituted  in  1798, 
obtained  some  notable  accessions  of  the  younger  genera- 
tion. ^  One  of  these,  Alexander  McLeod,  in  1800  declined 
a  call  to  a  New  York  church  on  the  ground  that  some  of 
its  members  were  slave-holders.  This  at  once  fixed  at- 
*  tention  upon  the  subject,  andijthe  Presbytery  required  that 
the  members  of  the  church  should  emancipate  their  slaves. 
This  decision  was  conveyed  to  the  churches  in  the  South 
by  James  McKinney  and  Samuel  B.  Wylie,  and  with  a 
single  exception  the  membership  complied  with  it.^  By 
1809  the  Presbytery  had  become  a  Synod^)and  the  three 
local  *'  committees  "  into  which  it  had  been  divided  became 
Presbyteries.  As  reorganized  the  body  dissented  from 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  on  the  ground  that 
it  contained  no  recognition  of  the  mediatorial  authority 
of  Christ  over  the  nations  ;  and  its  membership  therefore 
abstained  from  voting.  In  exposition  of  these  views  they 
published  a  doctrinal  and  historical  Testimony  in  i8o6.> 
/  (2)  The  Associate  Presbytery  (or  Seceders)  had  grown 
by  immigration  in  both  the  Middle  and  the  Southern  States, 
and  in  1801  a  Synod  was  organized  in  subordination  to 
the  General  Synod  in  Scotland — a  relation  not  terminated 
until  181 8.";  In  James  Anderson,  of  western  Pennsylvania, 


G  THE   PRESBVTEKIAKS.  [CHAr.  vii. 


whom  they  elected  professor  of  theology  in  1792,  they 
found  an  able  and  laborious,  though  somewhat  tedious, 
trainer  of  their  ministry.  With  them  also  the  question  of 
slavery  was  brought  up  in  1800,  and  again  in  1808,  by 
memorials.  The  Associate  Synod,  however,  did  not  adopt 
the  heroic  remedy  the  Reformed  Presbytery  had  applied. 
;They,  in  181 1,  advised  emancipation,  but  left  open  an  al- 
ternative, which  deprived  the  act  of  much  of  its  force^ 
^(  (3)  The  Associate  Reformed  Church,  formed  by  the 
union  of  1780-82,  was  growing  more  rapidly  than  either 
of  these  bodies.^  To  the  three  Presbyteries  the  Synod 
embraced  was  added,  in  1794,  the  Presbytery  of  London- 
derry, embracing  most  of  the  Presbyterian  churches  that 
were  left  in  New  England.  But  within  a  year  after  this 
union  the  Synod  began  to  hear  unsatisfactory  reports  of 
the  behavior  of  these  churches  in  the  matter  of  their  Psal- 
mody, and  their  communion  with  other  churches  and 
Christians.  As  no  satisfaction  was  obtained  on  this  point, 
the  Synod  in  1801  "disclaimed  all  responsibility"  for  the 
New  England  Presbytery. i^.  The  same  year  witnessed  a 
secession  in  the  other  direction.  The  Synod  had  refused  to 
publish  a  "  subordinate  Testimony,"  and  had  adopted  the 
Westminster  Confession  and  Catechisms  with  quaUfying 
declarations  as  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  magistrate  in 
matters  of  religion.  On  this  and  like  accounts  two  minis- 
ters withdrew,  and  organized  in  1801  the  Reformed  Dis- 
senting Presbytery,  which  perpetuated  its  existence  for 
more  than  half  a  century.  The  body  was  called  the  War- 
wickites,  from  the  more  influential  of  the  two.  The  next 
year  the  Synod  made  provision  for  the  election  of  a  Gen- 
eral Synod,  with  four  provincial  Synods.  This  scheme 
proved  too  elaborate  and  cumbersome  for  the  strength  of 
the  church,  and  had  the  further  effect  of  isolating  the  sub- 
divisions from  each  other.     The  eastern  wing  of  the  church. 


STATISTICS   OF   GROWTH. 


77 


led  by  the  eloquent  John  M.  Mason,  of  New  York,  diverged 
from  the  West  and  the  South,  and  approximated  the  posi- 
tion of  the  General  Assembly. 

^  It  is  only  from  the  statistics  the  General  Assembly  be- 
gan to  append  to  its  minutes  that  we  are  able  to  obtain  an 
idea  of  the  rate  at  which  the  main  body  of  Presbyterians 
grew.  Those  of  1789  show  a  total  of  419  churches  with 
177  ordained  ministers  and  11  probationers^^  The  returns 
for  the  following  years  are  all  defective,  until  we  reach 
I  798  and  I  799.  *  In  the  latter  year  we  find  the  Presbyteries 
have  grown  from  17  to  25,  with  449  churches,  served  by 
266  ministers  and  35  licentiates.  ^^The  reports  are  again 
defective  until  1803,  when  the  ingatherings  from  the  great 
revival  are  indicated  in  3  i  Presbyteries  and  5  1 1  churches, 
supplied  by  322  ministers  and  48  licentiates.  It  was  after 
1807  that  the  report  of  communicants  is  attempted,  but 
always  with  from  2  jto  9  Presbyteries  marked  as  having 
made  *' no  report."^  The  minutes  of  1810,  the  last  of  the 
present  period,  show  that  32  of  the  36  Presbyteries  re- 
ported 28,901  communicants  gathered  in  J  J 2  churches, 
and  supplied  by  434  ordained  ministers  and  5  i  licentiates.^ 

The  extent  to  which  the  churches  outnumbered  the 
ministers  and  licentiates  suggested  strenuous  efforts,  to 
which  the  Assembly  called  the  Presbyteries,  to  increase 
the  number  of  candidates.  It  was  from  the  Presbytery  of 
Philadelphia  that  the  suggestion  came  for  the  establishment 
of  a  theological  school.  ^  The  work  of  circulating  good  books 
had  been  promoted  even  in  colonial  times.  By  a  pamphlet 
called  '*  Glad  Tidings,"  describing  the  widespread  revivals, 
and  by  establishing  an  *'  Assembl3/'s  Magazine, '{^ the  church 
now  entered  the  field  of  publication  on  its  own  account) 
while  it  formally  approved  of  new  editions  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  of  the  formation  of  Bible  Societies.  .,  It  declined  to 
adopt  the  program  of  immediate,  compulsory  emancipation 


78  THE   PRESBYTERIAXS.  [CiiAr.  vii. 

of  the  slaves  held  by  its  own  members ;  but  it  repeated  its 
disapproval  of  slavery,  and  gladly  welcomed  to  the  ministry 
two  colored  men,  who  labored  among  their  own  peopleA 
It  required  its  home  missionaries  not  to  neglect  the  Indians 
in  their  fields  of  labo^  and  found  in  Gideon  Blackburn,  of 
Tennessee,  a  worthy  successor  to  the  Brainards,  in  his  labors 
among  the  Cherokees  (i  792-1810). 

Besides  the  differences  growing  out  of  the  revivals  in 
tlie  Southwest,  the  church  had  few  matters  of  dispute  to 
distract  it.  Adam  Rankin  came  across  the  Alleghanies  to 
convince  the  Assembly  of  1789  of  the  wrongfulness  of  al- 
lowing Watts  to  supersede  Rouse  in  the  matter  of  Psal- 
mody, and  went  back  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  Associate 
Reformed  Church  in  Kentucky,  and  to  give  them  also 
trouble  enough.  (In  1802  Dr.  Dwight's  enlargement  and 
revision  of  Watts,  with  an  appendix  of  hymns,  was  adopted 
by  the  Assembly  without  resistance, 

'The  only  doctrinal  discussions  of  the  time  grew  out  of 
the  influence  of  the  views  of  theology  put  forward  by  Dr. 
Samuel  Hopkins,  of  Newport,  in  1793;,'  I^^  1798  Hezekiah 
Balch,  of  Greenville,  Tenn.,  was  heard  on  appeal  from  the 
Synod  of  the  Carolinas  ;  and  while  the  Assembly,  on  hear- 
ing his  explanations,  exonerated  him  from  the  charge  of 
heresy,  it  yet  had'  admonished  him  for  making  "  disinter- 
ested benevolence  "  the  test  of  a  gracious  state,  and  for 
failing  to  trace  our  innate  depravity  to  our  membership 
in  a  fallen  race,;  These  well-known  points  of  Hopkinsian 
teaching  he  had  absorbed  during  a  visit  to  New  England, 
v;hich  he  took  to  raise  funds  for  Greenville  College.  He 
submitted  himself  to  the  admonition  of  the  Assembly,  but 
remained  a  Hopkinsian  to  his  death,  as  was  his  associate 
and  successor  in  the  college's  presidency,  Dr.  Charles  Cof- 
fin, and  others. 


^"  CHAPTER    VIII. 


THE    ERA    OF    NEW    METHODS,    181O-3O. 

It  was  not  until  some  twenty  years  after  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  General  Assembly  that  the  methods  of  practical 
administration  were  really  ^idjusted.  There  were  years  of 
outreaching  and  of  experiment  in  various  directions,  under 
the  influence  of  a  spirit  which  was  at  work  in  every  branch 
of  the  Presbyterian  brotherhood,  in  the  other  Protestant 
churches  of  America,  and  in  the  churches,  both  established 
and  free,  of  Great  Britain.  It  was  indeed  in  these  last  that 
the  first  steps  in  the  new  direction  were  taken,  and  from 
thence  that  the  new  methods  of  procedure  made  their  way 
to  America.  ' 

The  Great  Awakening,  which  all  these  churches  had 
shared,  was  characterized  by  a  disposition  to  subordinate 
everything  to  immediate  practical  efficiency.  It  rearranged 
the  theology  of  Protestantism  in  a  new  perspective  of  doc- 
trines, with  reference  to  the  conversion  of  sinners,  laying 
stress  upon  those  points  only  which  seemed  to  contribute 
to  that  end.  Much  more  in  the  field  of  practical  adminis- 
tration it  placed  no  value  upon  traditional  methods  or 
principles,  when  newer  plans  of  action  promised  larger 
results.  The  authority  of  bishops,  the  independency  of 
local  churches,  and  the  initiative  of  Synods  and  Presby- 
teries alike  must  yield  to  this ;  or  else  see  those  who  once 
had  accepted  the  new  maxims  form  themselves  into  entirely 
new  communions,  in  which  the  principle  of  immediate  util- 
ity dominated  all  methods.     Those  who  clung  to  the  older 

79 


8o  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

communions,  but  acquiesced  in  the  new  ideas,  compromised 
by  setting  up  a  new  order  alongside  the  old,  and  working 
the  two  in  such  harmony  as  was  attainable. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  had  to  give  up  less  in  yielding 
to  the  new  demands  than  did  either  of  the  two  rival  sys- 
tems. It  placed  its  aggressive  work,  indeed,  in  the  hands 
of  boards  chosen  annually,  and  administered  by  permanent 
officials — the  method  with  which  we  now  are  so  familiar, 
but  which  seemed  so  novel  a  century  ago.  It  allowed 
these  to  adopt  the  policy  of  big  meetings,  with  eloquent 
speakers  to  enforce  the  claims  of  the  annual  report  upon 
audiences  heated  by  eloquence.  But  by  keeping  the  selec- 
tion of  these  boards  in  the  hands  of  the  church's  courts,  it 
avoided  the  evils  of  a  nominally  popular  election,  by  which 
a  few  persons  might  perpetuate  indefinitely  their  tenure  of 
office..'^  To  this  extent  the  stricter  Presbyterians  were  riglit 
in  their  preference  for  boards  thus  created  and  controlled, 
to  those  created  by  voluntary  societies — a  preference  which 
became  one  of  the  fighting  issues  of  the  approaching  era 
of  division.  A  thorouglily  effective  beard,  however,  must 
take  responsibilities  of  action  which  are  not  reconcilable 
with  the  authority  of  initiative  which  our  theory  of  church 
government  vests  in  the  General  Assembly. 
^  It  was  the  inception  of  missions  to  the  heathen,  so  long 
neglected  by  the  Protestant  churches,  which  introduced 
the  new  method.  In  America  this  began  with  the  organi- 
zation of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  of  F'oreign 
Missions  in  1810,  by  the  Congregationalists  of  Massachu- 
setts, in  response  to  the  desire  of  certain  candidates  for 
the  ministry,  to  be  sent  to  the  foreign  field.  The  General 
Assembly  in  181 2  commended  the  Board  to  the  support 
of  its  churches,  and  afterward  refused  to  establish  a  Foreign 
Mission  Board  of  its  own,  although  urged  to  do  so  by  the 
American  Board  itself.     Within  the  church,  and  in  coop- 


THE   NEW   WEST.  8 1 

eration  with  the  members  of  kindred  churches,  were  formed 
local  missionary  societies.  These,  however,  confined  their 
labors  to  the  pagan  Indians  of  our  own  country ;  and  in 
1826  even  these  were  consohdated  with  the  American 
Board.5, 

^  Parallel  with  this  rise  of  foreign  missions,  there  arose  a  1 
new  interest  in  the  work  of  home  missions.  The  valley  of 
the  Mississippi  was  now  open  to  white  settlement,  and  the 
first  settlers  were  giving  painful  illustration  of  the  influence 
of  such  a  migration  on  moral  habits  and  feeble  Christian 
character. s  lii  18 13  Samuel  J.  Mills,  who  had  held  with 
two  others  the  prayer-meeting  under  the  haystack  in  the 
meadow  near'Williams  College,  which  led  to  the  formation 
of  the  American  Board,  and  who  had  been  debarred  from 
the  foreign  field  by  ill-health,  visited  the  new  settlements, 
in  company  with  John  F.  Schermerhorn,  to  investigate  and 
report  upon  their  condition.  ^  Their  account  of  the  profan- 
ity, drunkenness,  gambling,  and  indifference  they  witnessed 
was  an  eloquent  and  effective  appeal  to  the  Calvinistic 
churches,  leading  to  the  organization  of  home  missionary 
societies,  and  to  the  transfer  of  the  General  Assembly's 
home  mission  work  to  a  Board  of  Home  Missions,  with 
ampler  powers,  in  1816.6  It  was  now  seen  that  steps  must 
be  taken  to  occupy  the  home  field  more  effectively  than 
had  been  done  by  sending  out  a  few  itinerants,  to  spread 
their  labors  over  a  wide  field,  and  to  form  small  churches, 
which  soon  perished  of  neglect. 

^Another  department  of  home  mission  work  was  enteredy 
in  18 19  by  the  establishment  of  the  Board  of  Education. 
This  was  the  time  of  the  rise  of  the  great  national  societies : 
the  American  Bible  Society,  organized  by  delegates  of  local 
societies  in  1816;  the  American  Sunday-school  Union  in 
1824,  and  the  American  Tract  Society  in  1825.  In  the 
smaller  Presbyterian  churches  home  missionary  work  was 


S2  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

Still  conducted  by  purely  synodical  methods,  and  none  of 
them  engaged  as  yet  in  foreign  missions;  but  individuals, 
such  as  Dr.  Alexander  Proudfit,  gave  support  to  the 
American  Board, 

\  Hardly  less  important  in  its  effects  was  the  change  now 
begun  in  the  education  of  the  church's  ministry.  In  the 
colonial  period  such  training  as  was  given  in  addition  to 
the  academic  course  of  study  was  generally  obtained  by 
the  candidate's  residence  at  the  home  of  a  working  pastor 
of  recognized  theological  attainments.  ^  It  was  chiefly 
instruction  in  dogmatic  theology  by  the  preparation  of 
prescribed  essays  and  sermons,  and  practical  training  in 
pastoral  work  in  the  homes  of  the  minister's  people.  In 
New  England,  pastors  like  Joseph  Bellamy  and  Nathaniel 
Emmons  were  especially  sought  out.  The  next  step  in 
the  Presbyterian  churches  was  to  designate  a  fit  man  to 
exercise  such  oversight,  and  to  pay  him  a  small  salary  in 
recognition  of  his  additional  toil,  rather  than  in  compensa- 
tion for  it.  So  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  selected  Dr. 
John  Livingston,  of  New  York,  in  1784;  the  Associate 
Presbyterian  Church  in  i  792  appointed  Dr.  John  Ander- 
son, of  Beaver  County,  Pa. ;  the  Associate  Reformed 
Church  secured  Dr.  John  M.  Mason,  of  New  York,  in 
1804,  and  gave  him  a  colleague  in  1809;  ^-^d  the  Re- 
formed Presbyterian  Church  appointed  Dr.  Samuel  B. 
Wyhe,  of  Philadelphia,  in  1808.  In  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  study  under  pastors,  especially  those  who,  like 
Tennent  and  Blair,  had  founded  classical  academies,  came 
first.  After  Witherspoon's  acceptance  of  the  presidency 
at  Princeton  in  i  768,  the  occupant  of  that  office  was  ex- 
pected and  paid  to  give  instruction  in  sacred  literature  and 
in  theology.  But  men  of  eminence  as  pastors  and  teach- 
ers, Hke  Robert  Smith,  of  Pequa,  continued  to  attract 
students  for  preparation  in  theology. 


THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARIES.  83 

The  insufficiency  of  both  means  to  meet  the  rapidly 
increasing  demand  for  ministers  was  felt  especially  after 
the  great  revivals  of  1 799-1804;  and  the  notable  success 
of  the  Congregationalist  seminary  recently  established  at 
Andover  suggested  a  new  step.  The  president  of  Prince- 
ton College,  it  was  found,  could  spare  but  two  hours  a 
week  to  carry  his  students  of  theology  over  the  entire 
^^field.  In  1809  the  General  Assembly  submitted  to  the 
Presbyteries  a  plan  to  establish  either  one,  two,  or  sever-al 
theological  schools.  As  many  of  the  Presbyteries  having 
voted  generally  for  a  single  school,  as  for  any  other  plan, 
steps  were  taken  for  its  endowment,  and  in  181 2  Dr. 
Archibald  Alexander,  a  native  of  Virginia,  who  had  first 
suggested  the  plan  to  the  Assembly,  and  had  left  the 
presidency  of  Hampden-Sidney  College  for  a  Philadelphia 
pastorate,  was  called  to  be  the  first  professor  of  theology, 
with  nine  students.  Next  year  Dr.  Samuel  Miller  was 
associated  with  him,  as  professor  of  ecclesiastical  history 
and  church  government;  and  in  1820  Charles  Hodge  was 
employed  to  teach  Hebrew  and  Greek,  becoming  professor 
of  oriental  and  biblical  literature  in  1822.  The  seminary 
owed  much,  in  its  inception  and  early  years,  to  the  gifts 
and  efforts  of  devout  women  in  the  church.*^ 

As  the  Middle  States  were  still  comparatively  poor,  and 
as  New  England  was  occupied  with  the  endowment  of 
Andover  Seminary  and  its  struggling  colleges,  it  was  hard 
to  get  an  endowment  for  Princeton.  Devout  women  not 
a  few  gave  and  collected  for  this  purpose.  John  Seargent 
gave  a  fortnight's  fees,  and  others  contributed  up  to  the 
measure  of  their  ability. 

V  The  Assembly  having  left  the  Synods  free  to  establish 
synodical  seminaries,  if  they  chose,  the  Synod  of  Virginia 
established  Union  Seminary  at  Hampden-Sidney,  with 
one  professor  and  an  instructor;  and  in  1828  it  obtained 


84  ^-^-^  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

the  support  of  the  Synod  of  North  Carohna.  In  1821 
Auburn  Seminary  was  opened,  under  control  of  the 
Synod  of  Geneva,  with  its  three  professorships,  filled  by 
James  Richards,  M.  L.  R.  Perrine,  and  Henry  Mills.  Rather 
on  the  old  footing  of  the  colonial  academy  was  the  South- 
ern and  Western  Theological  Seminary,  set  on  foot  by 
Isaac  Anderson,  at  Maryville,  Tenn.,  a  man  equally  great 
as  teacher  and  preacher,  and  Hopkinsian  in  his  views  of 
theology.  The  theological  seminaries  at  Columbia  in 
South  Carohna  (1828),  and  Alleghany  in  western  Penn- 
sylvania (1826),  were  synodical  institutions.^ 

This  new  method  of  training  ministers  represented  both 
a  loss  and  a  gain.  It  could  not  secure  that  direct  familiar- 
ity with  the  pastor's  work  among  his  people  which  was 
possible  in  what  we  may  call  the  clerical  apprenticeship  of 
the  older  method.  It  also  made  it  possible  for  the  teach- 
ers to  become  scholastic  and  abstract  in  their  methods,  as 
working  pastors  were  not  likely  to  be.  And  by  concen- 
trating the  whole  work  of  training  the  ministry  in  the 
hands  of  a  few  closely  associated  scholars,  it  created  the 
opportunity  to  stamp  the  peculiarities  of  some  single  mind 
upon  the  teaching  of  the  church  at  large,  so  as  to  narrow 
its  range  of  theological  thought  to  one  or  a  few  types, 
and  exaggerate  some  points  of  doctrinal  teaching  far  be- 
yond their  true  importance.  The  gain  was  in  the  greater 
thoroughness  with  which  the  scientific  parts  of  theology 
could  be  mastered  and  imparted  by  teachers  set  free  from 
other  labors,  and  with  the  field  of  theology  shared  be- 
tween several.  At  the  same  time  this  opened  vistas  of 
grave  possibilities  as  to  the  effect  of  the  investigations  of 
theological  science  upon  minds  pledged  to  teach  the  views 
formulated  in  the  standards  of  the  church. 

It  was  again  the  problem  of  clerical  education  that  de- 
veloped those  differences  between  the  two  elements  in  the 


HOPKINS  I  A  NISM.  8  5 

personal  composition  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  which 
afterward  led  to  their  disunion.  The  spiritual  needs  of 
the  colored  people  had  suggested  in  1818  the  establish- 
ment of  an  *'  African  School  "  to  train  preachers  of  their 
own  color.  The  proposal  to  place  its  teachers  under  the 
same  special  pledge  to  the  standards,  as  is  given  by  pro- 
fessors in  Princeton  Seminary,  was  resisted  by  the  New 
England  element  which  controlled  the  Synods  adjacent  to 
those  States.  And  this  disagreement  probably  caused  its 
suspension  in  1826. 

^  Parallel  with  the  new  departure  in  ministerial  education 
was  a  general  effort  to  increase  the  number  of  theological 
students.  The  General  Assembly  urged  the  Presbyteries 
to  press  the  claims  of  the  work  upon  gracious  young  men. 
To  aid  needy  students  two  education  societies  were  formed, 
one  to  cooperate  with  the  American  Education  Society, 
centered  in  Boston,  and  the  other  to  act  under  the  authority 
of  the  General  Assembly.t  The  former  proposed  to  assist 
young  men  during  their  academic  career  only,  giving  as  a 
reason  that  the  church  was  too  much  divided  on  doctrinal 
questions  to  allow  of  united  action  as  regards  theological 
training!  This  only  could  mean  dissatisfaction  with  the 
theological  character  of  Princeton,  as  representing  a  Cal- 
vinism unaffected  by  the  ''  improvements  "  which  Edwards, 
Hopkins,  and  Emmons  had  introduced  in  New  England. 

At  this  time  the  especial  views  of  Dr.  Samuel  Hopkins, 
of  Newport,  enjoyed  a  great  vogue  in  both  New  England 
and  the  adjacent  States.  Samuel  Whelpley,  of  New  York, 
defended  them  with  great  vigor  and  some  acrimony  in 
*' The  Triangle  "  (1816);  Edward  Dorr  Griffin,  at  Newark 
(1801-09),  Gardiner  Spring  of  the  Brick  Church,  in  New 
York,  Samuel  Hanson  Cox,  a  young  convert  from  Quaker- 
ism, and  others,  held  them,  James  Richards,  who  suc- 
ceeded Griffin  in  Newark,  and  was  afterward  professor  of 


86  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

theology  in  the  seminary  at  Auburn,  erected  in  1 8 19  by 
those  who  thought  Princeton  too  narrow,  was  rather  an 
Edwardean  than  a  Hopkinsian,  and  dissented  strongly 
from  the  peculiar  views  of  Dr.  Emmons,  which  he  found 
prevalent  in  western  New  York. 

Equally  decided,  but  in  different  degrees,  was  the  oppo- 
sition to  this  Hopkinsian  drift.  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles  Ely,  a  New 
Englander,  but  then  a  hospital  chaplain  in  New  York, 
made  himself  the  spokesman  of  extreme  opposition  by  his 
**  Contrast  between  Calvinism  and  Hopkinsianism  "  (New 
York,  181 1),  whose  sharpness  gave  offense  even  in  Phila- 
delphia. He  was  called  in  181 3  to  succeed  Dr.  Archibald 
Alexander  in  the  Pine  Street  Church,  but  his  settlement 
was  resisted  by  a  strong  minority,  which  after  a  time  with- 
drew to  form  a  Sixth  Church. 

In  181  7  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania,  in  a  Pastoral  Letter 
composed  by  Dr.  Ely,  congratulated  the  churches  on  the 
vigor  shown  by  its  Presbyteries  in  *'  resisting  the  introduc- 
tion of  Arian,  Socinian,  Arminian,  and  Hopkinsian  here- 
sies, which  are  some  of  the  means  by  which  the  enemy  of 
souls  would,  if  possible,  deceive  the  very  elect."  The 
stigma  thus  affixed  to  a  school  whom  Dr.  Ashbel  Green 
had  described  to  Mr.  Balch  as  '*  the  most  laborious  stu- 
dents, faithful  pastors,  successful  preachers,  and  instructive 
writers  in  all  New  England,"  arrested  the  attention  of  the 
committee  on  the  records  of  that  Synod,  and  they  re- 
ported a  commendation  of  its  zeal  with  an  expression  of 
regret  that  it  had  been  "  manifested  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  be  offensive  to  other  denominations."  This  was  due 
probably  to  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  Dr.  Samuel 
Miller,  whose  friendship  for  Dr.  Gfiffin  did  not  prevent  his 
being  a  decided  opponent  of  what  Dr.  Rice  called  "  those 
Hopkinsian  crudities."  It  is  said  that  he  had  suggested 
to  Dr.  Ely  the  writing  of  the  "  Contrast,"  but  regretted 


INDIVIDUALISM.  87 

the  tone  he  took.  In  his  view,  which  time  has  justified, 
the  Hopkinsian  peculiarities  were  a  temporary  phase  of 
thought,  which  at  last  would  vanish  into  the  limbo  of  for- 
gotten theories.  He  believed  that  more  was  to  be  gained 
by  courteous  discussion  and  patience  than  by  judicial  con- 
demnations. There  were  those  who  differed  from  this 
Gamaliel-like  policy,  and  two  protests  against  the  report 
received  the  signatures  of  twelve  of  the  one  hundred  and 
one  members  of  that  Assembly. 

As  has  been  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Augustus  Strong,  the 
root  of  all  the  theological  peculiarities  of  New  England 
theology,  from  Hooker  and  Sheppard  to  our  own  times, 
may  be  traced  to  the  extravagant  individualism  which  has 
characterized  her  social  and  intellectual  life.  These  short- 
lived **  improvements "  of  the  Calvinistic  theology  were 
but  so  many  attempts  to  bring  Calvinism  into  harmony 
with  a  principle  which  found  its  final  expression  in  Emer- 
son's "  supremacy  of  the  individual  conscience  "  over  all 
law  and  all  forms  of  institutions.  In  her  opposition  to 
congregational  independency  and  her  maintenance  of 
synodical  authority,  the  Presbyterian  Church  held  to  the 
principle  of  an  organic  social  life  in  both  the  race  and  the 
church.  And  the  instinct  which  led  her  to  regard  these 
"improvements"  with  repugnance  was  historically  just 
and  theologically  sound.  Here  again,  however,  we  must 
regret  that  the  Westminster  standards,  as  adopting  the 
Covenant  or  "  Federal  "  theology  of  the  Cocceian  school, 
presented  the  opposite  principle  in  an  inadequate  and  ex- 
tremely artificial  shape,  and  represented  the  primal  unity 
of  the  race,  and  that  of  the  redeemed  with  Christ,  as  a 
forensic  fiction  rather  than  a  spiritual  reality.  Nor  did 
the  Princeton  theology  at  any  time  rise  to  a  perception  of 
the  difference  between  the  form  of  statement  found  in  the 
standards  and  the  principle  really  at  stake.      Among  the 


88  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  vnr. 

Covenanters,  who  cherished  the  older  traditions  of  Scottish 
Calvinism,  there  was  complaint  that  Princeton  mistook 
theologic  fact  for  forensic  fiction,  and  laid  no  stress  on  the 
dignity  of  the  Saviour  as  the  living  head  of  his  redeemed 
people,  in  explaining  the  connection  of  his  righteousness 
with  their  salvation.^ 

More  easy  and  unresisted  was  the  encroachment  of 
Puritan  individualism  in  the  practical  life  of  the  church. 
The  New  England  men  among  its  ministry  brought  with 
them  elements  of  the  Independent  conception  of  the 
church,  which  differed  widely  from  historic  Presbyterian- 
ism,  but  which  have  nearly  replaced  it.  Their  demand 
for  *'  a  regenerate  church-membership  "  not  only  set  aside 
"  the  judgment  of  charity  "  of  the  Reformed  churches,  but 
introduced  the  fashion  of  speaking  of  the  adult  communi- 
cants as  the  only  *'  members  of  the  church,"  and  of  treat- 
ing its  baptized  children  as  outside  pagans,  exempt  even 
from  its  discipline/'  For  the  Presbyterian  usage  of  baptiz- 
ing the  children  of  the  baptized  came  in  the  Congregation- 
alist  rule  that  baptism  should  be  confined  to  the  children 
of  communicants,  i.e.,  of  those  who  could  give  credible 
evidence  of  their  conversion.  Thus  Dr.  Gardiner  Spring, 
on  comingvj^from  New  England  to  the  pastorate  of  the 
Brick  Church,  set  aside  the  usage  established  by  Dr.  Rod- 
gers.  Dr.  McKnight,  and  Dr.  Samuel  Miller,  and  confined 
baptism  to  *'  those  children  one  of  whose  parents  was  a 
professed   Christian."^/:,    From   the    same   root   grew  the 

1  See  Dr.  S.  B.  Wylie  in  "  The  American  Christian  Expositor,"  vol.  i., 
pp.  419-425,  and  pp.  445-453.  One  of  Dr.  Wylie's  former  students  had  been 
challenged  for  his  views  on  this  point  on  applying  for  admission  to  the  Pres- 
byterian ministry,  but  had  been  admitted  after  explanations. 

2  See  his  "  Life  and  Times,"  New  York,  1865,  vol.  i.,  pp.  124-126.  Dr. 
Spring  appeals  to  the  language  of  the  Confession  and  the  Longer  Catechism 
as  justifying  this  restriction.  But  his  eminent  predecessors  in  the  pastorate 
had  interpreted  the  language  of  the  standards  in  accordance  with  the  historic 
sense ;  he,  in  accordance  with  the  language  of  the  Great  Awakening.  Dr. 
Charles  Hodge  always  stood  by  the  older  interpretation. 


CHURCH  LIFE.  89 

practice  of  establishing  elaborate  covenants  and  articles  of 
belief  in  each  congregation,  to  which  every  member  was 
asked  to  give  assent,  instead  of  receiving  them  on  a  con- 
fession of  the  simplest  essentials  of  Christian  faith.  The 
requirement  was  natural  enough  among  Congregational- 
ists,  but  manifestly  out  of  harmony  with  Presbyterianism. 
v  Besides,  these  in  the  more  public  aspects  of  the  church, 
there  were  important  changes  in  the  Congregational  life 
of  this  time.  The  position  of  the  ministry  became  less 
separate  and  formal.  Even  late  in  the  eighteenth  century 
they  commonly  appeared  on  the  streets  in  their  black 
gowns.  In  1795,  and  probably  later,  they  wore  them  on 
their  way  to  church  on  Sundays.  Dr.  Milledoller  speaks 
of  passing  Dr.  Samuel  Miller  frequently  on  Sunday  morn- 
ings, ''  both  dressed  in  full  canonicals,  not  omitting  the 
three-cornered  hat,"  and  says  they  were  called  *'  the  boy 
ministers."  With  the  new  century  the  gown  was  laid 
aside  on  the  street,  and  gradually  disused  even  in  the 
pulpit — a  symbol  of  the  abandonment  of  that  position  of 
factitious  reverence  which  the  ministry  had  occupied.^.  In 
1 80 1  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander,  on  a  visit  to  New  Eng- 
land, knew  he  had  crossed  the  Connecticut  State  line  and 
had  entered  Rhode  Island  from  the  cessation  of  all  public 
deference  to  his  ministerial  character.  The  manners  of 
Rhode  Island  were  now  to  become  national. 
^  The  labors  of  the  ministry  were  arduous.  Intolerance 
of  read  sermons  compelled  the  practice  of  memorizing 
after  writing,  and  public  taste  exacted  a  stately  and  elab- 
orate style,  such  as  John  M.  Mason  and  Edward  Dorr 
Griffin  especially  exemplified,  from  the  occupants  of  im- 
portant pastoral  charges.  Long,  even  life-long  pastorates 
were  still  the  rule,  and  changes  the  exception,  so  that  the 
preacher  commonly  spent  his  whole  labor  on  a  single 
ilock,  and  had  no  opportunity  to  use  old  material  in  a  new 


90  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

pulpit.  Official  visitation  at  least  twice  a  year  was  ex- 
pected of  them.  And  while  the  general  introduction  of 
Sunday-schools  during  this  period  somewhat  lightened 
their  labors  among  the  young  of  their  flock,  where  the 
older  tradition  lingered  they  were  expected  to  meet  and 
catechize  the  children  of  their  charge  every  week  on 
Wednesday  or  on  Saturday,  with  the  help  of  some  of  the 
elders,  or,  if  she  were  a  notable  woman,  of  the  pastor's 
wife.  The  Lord's  Supper  was  administered  four  times 
a  yearpand  the  Edwardean  test  for  communicants,  once 
rejected  even  by  Gilbert  Tennent,  now  came  into  very 
general  acceptance.  People  came  not  so  much  to  get 
grace,  as  to  profess  that  they  had  got  it.  At  the  same 
time  the  Zwinglian  theory  of  a  simple  commemoration 
became  more  common,  and  reliance  was  placed  simply 
upon  "the  hallowed  associations"  of  the  rite,  and  its 
adaptation  for  enforcing  truth  by  a  striking  symbol. 

Between  the  General  Assembly  and  the  other  Presby- 
terian bodies,  except  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians,  the 
breach  was  now  complete  in  the  matter  of  Psalmody. 
These  others  still  clung  to  the  use  of  the  Scotch  Psalter 
of  1649,  3.nd  made  the  use  of  uninspired  hymns  a  ground 
for  refusing  communion.  In  spite  of  repeated  efforts 
toward  a  better  collection,  Dr.  Dwight's  **  Psalms  and 
Hymns "  remained  the  only  book  the  churches  of  the 
General  Assembly  were  allowed  to  substitute  for  the 
Scotch  Psalter  until  1831.  It  contained  the  whole  of  Dr. 
Dwight's  revision  of  Dr.  Watts's  Psalms. 

Of  the  smaller  Presbyterian  bodies,  the  Associate  Re- 
formed Church  had  the  most  memorable  history  during 
this  time.  From  the  first  its  origin,  though  a  union  on 
the  principle  of  preferring  essentials  to  lesser  peculiarities, 
seemed  to  affect  its  position  and  tendencies.  The  leader- 
ship of  Dr.  John  M.  Mason  corresponded  to  this  initiative. 


A   HASTY   UNION.  9 1 

In  181 1  we  find  the  General  Synod  treating  Psalmody  as 
a  question  for  forbearance  rather  than  strictness ;  and  five 
years  later  Dr.  Mason's  '*  Plea  for  Sacramental  Union  on 
Catholic  Principles "  showed  how  far  he  had  advanced 
toward  a  comprehensive  Presbyterianism.  In  1820  the 
General  Synod  received  overtures  for  a  union  from  the 
General  Assembly.  This  was  accepted  by  a  small  major- 
ity at  the  next  session,  although  it  had  been  voted  down 
in  the  Presbyteries,  and  the  union  thus  irregularly  agreed 
to  was  consummated.  Three  Presbyteries  only  united  with 
the  General  Assembly ;  but  among  the  ministers  received 
were  John  M.  Mason,  Erskine  Mason,  George  Junkin,  and 
William  Engles.  In  the  meantime  the  stricter  Presbyteries 
and  churches  of  the  West  had  withdrawn  from  the  Gen- 
eral Synod,  and  organized  a  Synod  of  the  West,  and  even 
opened  negotiations  for  union  with  the  Associate  Church; 
and  in  1821  the  Presbyteries  and  churches  of  the  South 
had  seceded  chiefly  because  of  the  hostility  to  slavery 
shown  by  the  Northern  part  of  the  church.  Even  the 
Synod  of  New  York  perpetuated  its  organization,  retain- 
ing most  of  its  churches  and  ministers,  and  finally,  in  1836, 
recovering  the  library  of  the  Newburg  Seminary,  which 
had  been  removed  to  Princeton  after  the  union  of  1822. 
The  seminary  itself  was  resuscitated  in  1829,  while  the 
Western  Synod  had  established  another  at  Pittsburg  in 
1825. 

The  Associate  Church,  which  became  independent  of  the 
Scottish  Synod  in  18 18,  moved  on  more  quietly,  extending 
its  membership  South  and  West  by  home  mission  labors. 
Although  slavery  was  declared  **  a  moral  evil"  in  181 1, 
slave-holders  were  not  debarred  from  communion  until 
1830.  In  1825  it  issued  a  special  testimony  against  Uni- 
tarianism  and  Hopkinsianism,  describing  the  latter  as  a 
revival   of   Pelagianism.      It   declined   a  union   with   even 


92  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

the  Stricter  Associate  Reformed  Synod  of  the  West,  stand- 
ing until  1840  by  the  unaltered  Westminster  Confession 
and  its  doctrine  of  the  civil  magistrate,  while  rejecting 
the  "  political  dissent  "  which  the  Covenanters  had  first 
adopted  toward  the  government  of  Great  Britain  and  now 
applied  to  that  of  America.  0 

Among  the  Covenanters  themselves  there  was  not  entire 
harmony  on  this  point,  and  what  there  was  tended  to 
diminish  as  time  went  on.  During  the  War  of  1812-15 
Dr.  Alexander  MacLeod  was  the  foremost  among  Ameri- 
can preachers  in  vindication  "of  the  policy  of  the  national 
government ;  and  this  sympathetic  attitude  was  reflected 
by  the  Synod  of  1812,  which  proposed  that  its  members 
should  take  what  was  virtually  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
United  States,  but  with  no  mention  of  the  Constitution. 1 
The  stricter  view  was  represented  by  Dr.  James  R.  Will- 
son,  of  Albany,  who  did  not  sympathize  with  Dr.  MacLeod's 
purpose  ''  to  render  our  system  less  exclusive."  .  He  en- 
joys the  distinction  of  being  the  first  American  writer  on 
the  history  of  doctrine,  through  his  ''  Historical  Sketch  of 
Opinions  on  the  Atonement"  (Philadelphia,  1817).^  The 
church  grew  steadily,  if  not  rapidly,  a  General  Synod  with 
two  subordinate  Synods  taking  the  place  of  the  Synod  in 

1  This  oath  ran  :  "  I,  A.  B.,  do  solemnly  declare,  in  the  name  of  the  Most 
High  God,  the  searcher  of  hearts,  that  I  abjure  all  foreign  allegiance  what- 
soever, and  hold  that  these  States  and  the  United  States  are,  and  ought  to  be, 
sovereign  and  independent  of  all  other  nations  and  governments  ;  and  that  I 
will  promote  the  best  interests  of  this  empire,  maintain  its  independence,  pre- 
serve its  peace,  and  support  the  integrity  of  the  Union  to  the  best  of  my 
power."  The  Synod  declare  their  disapprobation  of  the  constitution  is 
"  a  matter  of  conscience,  and  wholly  founded  on  the  omission"  of  a  recog- 
nition of  "  the  sovereignty  of  Messiah  overall  persons  and  things."  Dr. 
MacLeod's  sermons  on  "  The  Character,  Causes,  and  Ends  of  the  Present 
War,"  preached  in  1814,  and  published  the  year  following,  made  a  stir  lo- 
cally, as  New  York  City  and  most  of  its  preachers  were  unfriendly  to  the  war. 
They  were  praised  by  Jefferson,  and  Secretary  Stanton  is  said  to  have  read 
them  once  a  year  during  the  War  for  the  Union. 

2  Pages  123-215  are  devoted  to  Ainerica,  and  contain  some  valuable  notices. 
But  the  whole  book  is  badly  digested. 


AN  ERA    OF  GROWTH.  93 

1823.  As  their  decided  opposition  to  slavery  made  their 
continuance  in  the  South  uncomfortable,  a  general  migra- 
tion to  the  States  north  of  the  Ohio  was  planned,  their 
first  settlement  being  at  Eden,  in  southern  lUinois,  on 
whose  name  Mr.  Dickens  fastened  in  his  *'  Martin  Chuz- 
zlewit." 

The  population  of  the  nation  during  this  period  increased 
from  7f  to  I2|-  millions,  extending  by  isolated  groups  as 
far  west  as  the  Missouri  River,  but  moving  more  abun- 
dantly north  of  the  Ohio  River  than  south  of  it.  But  the 
growth  of  the  American  churches  was  far  more  rapid. 
This  was  due  largely  to  a  series  of  widespread  revivals 
during  the  years  of  commercial  depression  and  general 
distress,  which  followed  the  Peace  of  1816.  -  By  18 19,  it 
may  be  said,  the  skeptical  tendencies  which  came  in  with 
the  Revolution  were  finally  overcome.  The  compact 
organization  of  the  churches,  the  recognized  ability  of 
their  leaders,  and  the  efficiency  of  the  new  and  centralized 
methods  of  religious  work  had  created  a  new  prestige  for 
positive  religion,  while  skepticism,  under  the  name  of  free 
thought,  became  a  sect  whose  feebleness  and  purposeless- 
ness  were  advertised  by  its  attempts  at  organization  and 
agitation.  ''-  So  the  churches  grew  and  multiplied,  now  by 
the  fervor  of  revivals,  now  by  the  steady  weekly  ministra- 
tions of  the  gospel.  The  General  Assembly  began  to  re- 
port its  statistics  of  membership  in  1807,  when  it  had  598 
churches  and  365  pastors  and  licentiates  on  its  rolls.  In 
1820  the  returns  showed  a  communicant  roll  of  72,096  in 
over  1299  churches,  supplied  by  741  pastors  and  108  licen- 
tiates— three  Presbyteries  sending  no  report.  In  1830  the 
communicant  membership  was  173,329  in  2158  churches, 
ministered  to  by  1491  ministers  and  220  licentiates.^ 

The  most  rapid  growth  had  been  in  the  new  settlements 
in  western  New  York  and  in  Ohio.      It  had  been  a  saying 


94  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

that  the  Sabbath  was  unknown  west  of  the  Genesee  River. 
But  the  Synod  of  Genesee  and  the  two  adjacent  now  con- 
tained more  members  of  the  church  than  the  whole  Gen- 
eral Assembly  could  have  claimed  at  the  opening  of  the 
century. 

All  this  cost  heroic  toil  on  the  part  of  devoted  men, 
who  generally  gave  up  the  comforts  of  life  in  the  older 
States,  that  they  might  save  the  newer  for  Christ  and  his 
church.  They  rode  on  long  circuits  through  the  pathless 
forests  or  over  unbroken  prairies,  where  the  bending  of  the 
stalks  of  grass  showed  the  *'  trail."  They  slept  at  night 
under  a  tree,  beside  a  fire  kept  alight  to  scare  off  beasts 
of  prey ;  or  they  shared  the  rude  shelter  and  rough  fare 
of  the  settler.  If  they  found  homes  for  their  families  it 
was  in  rude  shanties  of  two  rooms,  where  they  eked  out 
existence  far  from  schools,  physicians,  and  stores,  often 
laboring  with  their  own  hands.  They  met  every  form  of 
resistance,  from  stolid  indifference  to  avowed  infidelity. 
They  encountered  drunkenness,  lewdness,  horse-racing, 
gambling,  and  Sabbath-breaking  in  the  newer  settlements. 
But  nothing  disheartened  them  or  broke  down  their  faith 
in  God  and  the  gospel,  and  bit  by  bit  they  saw  better  in- 
fluences becoming  pervasive,  and  the  order  of  a  Christian 
civiHzation  replacing  the  wild  lawlessness  of  an  earlier  day.^ 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE     NEW     AGE. 

'With  the  opening  of  the  fourth  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth century — as  of  the  eighteenth — there  dawns  a  new 
age  for  the  churches  of  America.  As  the  date  of  the  Great 
Awakening  marks  the  transition  from  the  Puritan  to  the 
Methodist  or  *'  Evangelical "  period,  so  the  new  date 
stands  for  the  transition  to  a  period  we  might  call  the  his- 
torical or  the  churchly,  or  by  half  a  dozen  related  names. 
In  this  case  the  new  influence  reaches  America  from  Great 
Britain,  pervading  different  portions  of  our  Christian  com- 
munity with  different  degrees  of  rapidity.  It  was  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  here  which,  like  its  mother- 
church  abroad,  was  the  first  to  recognize  what  was  con- 
genial to  its  own  spirit  in  the  new  atmosphere  of  thought 
and  feeling. 

The  characteristic  note  of  the  new  era  is  its  apprehen- 
sion of  Christianity,  not  especially  as  doctrinal  truth  or  de- 
vout emotion,  but  as  historical  fact.  It  turns  away  from 
systems  to  the  Scriptures,  especially  to  the  Gospels.  It 
takes  up  Lessing's  challenge — to  show  how  historical  fact 
can  be  reHgious  truth — and  meets  it  by  placing  the  Incar- 
nation in  the  forefront  of  Christian  teaching.  It  values  all 
the  ties  of  office  and  sacrament  and  worship  which  in  any 
way  bind  our  own  time  to  that  wonderful  Life,  and  to  the 
church  which  first  grew  out  of  it.  It  finds  in  these  the 
manifestation,  in  forms  essentially  beautiful,  of  that  which 

95 


96  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

is  the  core  of  Christianity — the  personal  presence  of  Christ 
/  with  his  church,  as  her  king  and  the  source  of  her  united 
hfe. 

This  new  age  is  especially  the  social  age.  Puritanism, 
by  its  excessive  individualism,  broke  up  society  into  its 
constituent  elements,  leaving  each  '*  face  to  face  with  God 
in  the  wilderness."  By  its  stress  on  the  nice  points  of 
doctrinal  distinction  on  which  men  more  easily  dififer  than 
agree,  it  tended  to  sunder  them  into  antagonistic  parties 
and  sects,  rather  than  bring  them  into  unity  and  brother- 
hood. Methodism  did  not  overcome  this  Puritan  tend- 
ency, but  rather  adopted  it,  as  it  set  before  the  church 
as  its  goal  the  salvation  of  the  largest  number  of  individ- 
ual souls  rather  than  the  establishment  of  God's  kingdom 
through  the  redemption  of  society.  It  went  even  further 
than  did  Puritanism  in  ignoring  the  historic  continuity  of 
the  church  and  sweeping  aside  whatever  was  not  seen  to 
be  directly  useful  to  the  ends  it  recognized. 

The  new  age  is  characterized  throughout  by  the  social 
stress.  Beginning  with  the  questions,  ''  What  is  the  church  ? 
Where  is  it?  What  are  the  essentials  of  its  organization? 
What  is  the  proper  expression  of  its  life  in  worship,  in 
organization?"  it  has  gone  on  to  investigate  the  relation 
of  the  church  to  social  problems  of  every  kind.  Moral 
reforms,  the  study  of  the  poor,  the  demands  of  social 
revolutionists,  the  ideal  of  a  truer  human  brotherhood 
among  men,  are  but  the  newer  phases  of  the  questions 
put  by  the  leaders  of  the  Oxford  Movement.  In  America 
they  were  first  propounded  to  the  church  by  Stephen 
Colwell  in  his  *'  New  Themes  for  the  Protestant  Clergy  " 
(Philadelphia,  185  i),  a  book  which  now  would  cause  hardly 
a  ripple  of  interest,  but  was  then  received  almost  as  a 
proposal  of  apostasy  from  the  pure  gospel.  They  now  are 
pressed  with  the  vehemence  and  exaggeration  which  char- 


THEOCRATIC  IDEALS.  C)'] 

acterize  all  reactions,  and  which  frequently  hide  the  old 
truth  by  the  obtrusion  of  the  new  into  the  foreground. 

To  the  Presbyterian  churches,  with  their  theocratic  tra- 
ditions inherited  from  their  founders,  this  reaction  to  a  \ 
more  social  view  of  religious  problems  should  be  especially 
welcome.  The  individualism  of  both  Puritanism  and 
Methodism  is  alien  to  their  oldest  and  best  traditions, 
which  call  for  the  realization  of  God's  kingd(jm  in  this 
present  world  through  the  influence  of  Christian  discipline 
and  teaching.  The  Genexa  of  John  Calvin  corresponds 
more  nearly  to  the  new  aspirations  which  are  stirring  in 
the  churches  of  America  than  does  anything  else  in  mod- 
ern history.  The  great  Scottish  kirkmen  from  Knox  to 
Henderson  give  us  suggestions  for  the  problems  of  to-day. 
While  the  past  cannot  be  restored,  and  its  methods  are  no 
longer  in  place,  its  ideals  have  a  lasting  value  for  us. 

Yet  the  first  attitude  of  these  churches  toward  the  new  } 
tendency  was  one  of  indifference  and  e\'en  hostility.  This 
was  partl}'^  because  it  presented  itself  in  shapes  less  con- 
genial to  Presbyterian  tradition,  and  partly  because  Pres- 
byterians were  dominated  by  the  ideals  of  the  Awakening. 
It  is  true  that  it  was  two  Presbyterians,  Edward  Irving 
and  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  first  gave  expression  to  the  new 
spirit,  as  Dr.  Newman  points  out  in  one  of  his  Oxford 
pamphlets.  But  the  seed  they  sowed  fell  into  an  Anglican 
glebe,  where  it  brought  forth  a  harvest  of  ecclesiasticism 
and  aestheticism  mainly.  Not  that  both  were  not  akin  to 
the  new  spirit.  The  idea  of  the  church  needed  to  be  im- 
pressed upon  a  generation  which  had  grown  indifferent  to 
it ;  and  the  more  receptive  minds  among  us,  such  as  James 
W.  Alexander,  did  not  fail  to  discern  the  significance  of 
the  truth  which  underlay  the  Tractarian  extravagances. 
Equally  necessary  was  the  restoration  of  the  beautiful  to 
its  place  in  the  service  of  God  and  the  order  of  his  house. 


98  THE   PRESBYTE:iIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

As  M.  Lanfrey  says,  our  age  is  one  which  is  characterized 
by  imagination  rather  than  reason.  Men  feel  the  force  of 
historical  associations,  or  the  subtle  attraction  of  form,  as 
they  did  not  for  centuries  past.  Powers  no  less  human 
than  reason  and  emotion  have  been  called  into  a  new 
activity,  and  demand  satisfaction.  To  give  them  a  noble 
direction,  to  effect  their  consecration  to  a  divine  service,  is 
one  of  the  problems  of  our  time.  It  is  not  a  question 
between  recognition  of  the  beautiful  and  indifference  to  it. 
It  is  whether  the  new  recognition  of  the  beautiful  shall  be 
Christian  or  pagan. 

Certainly  there  was  sore  need  of  an  aesthetic  reform  in 
the  churches  of  sixty  years  ago.  Methodism,  with  its 
rough-and-ready  utilitarianism  and  directness,  had  swept 
away  the  last  vestige  of  care  for  a  fitting  environment  of 
the  congregation's  worship  and  life.  The  churches  of  that 
era  were  as  ugly  and  cheerless  as  they  were  uncomfort- 
able. Only  the  imposing  mass  of  the  pulpit  symbolized 
the  absorption  of  all  other  functions  in  that  of  the  preacher. 
There  was  an  angularity  and  a  stiffness  about  every  line, 
within  and  without,  which  stood  in  sharpest  contrast  to 
any  glimpses  of  natural  form  within  reach  of  the  eye.  The 
interlacing  of  the  branches  of  a  tree  outside  a  window 
must  have  suggested  to  any  sensitive  mind  the  difference 
between  the  constructive  methods  of  our  Maker  and  those 
of  the  builders  of  houses  for  his  worship.  God  had  filled 
the  world  with  beauty  of  form  and  color;  but  those  who 
professed  to  know  his  mind  best,  to  have  acquired  that 
knowledge  from  a  book  as  full  of  b-eautiful  form  as  it  was 
of  deep  meanings,  showed  an  entire  indifference  to  any- 
thing but  a  practical  utility  conceived  in  the  narrowest 
way. 

Most  unfortunately  the  new  message  came  to  Christians 
generally  in  association  with  narrow  ecclesiastical  preten- 


''THE   BEAT  TV  OE  J/OUXESS:'  99 

sions,  fitly  symbolized  by  the  chill  and  mechanical  copies 
of  medieval  Gothic,  which  commonly — not  always — consti- 
tuted their  outer  expression  of  it.  To  Mr.  Ruskin,  who 
confesses  his  great  obligations  to  Presbyterian  training,  we 
owe  the  emancipation  of  imaginative  truth  from  the  mo- 
nopoly of  a  party. 

As  of  the  church  edifices,  so  of  the  worship  seen  in 
them.  There  was  no  doubt  a  vast  amount  of  living 
conviction  as  to  the  great  realities  on  which  the  church  is 
built,  and  an  intense  earnestness  of  personal  feeling  in  the 
approach  to  God.  The  barest  place  of  worship  was  often 
glorified  to  the  worshiper  by  a  beatific  vision  of  the  High 
and  Holy  One.  The  baldest  forms  were  found  to  be  an 
access  into  the  holiest  of  all.  The  most  prosaic  songs  of 
praise  lifted  the  heart  on  wings  of  thanksgiving.  But  In 
all  this,  if  the  Bible  be  our  guide  in  such  matters,  there 
was  a  lack  of  adaptation  of  the  outer  to  the  inner  which 
was  not,  indeed,  vital,  yet  unfit  and  unnatural.  Holiness 
has  its  own  beauty,  and  the  worship  which  is  to  meet 
man's  need  must  embrace  the  aroused  activities  of  his 
whole  nature. 

One  reason  for  this  sordidness  was  found  in  the  low 
ideas  of  the  Christian  sacraments  which  generally  pre- 
vailed. Puritanism  always  tended  to  the  Zwinglian  view 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  as  seeing  no  need  for  this  social 
fellowship  in  communion  with  Christ;  and  to  Anabaptism, 
as  faihng  to  conceive  of  the  organic  tie  which  binds  gener- 
ation to  generation.  John  Wesley's  churchmanship  did 
not  save  Methodism  from  the  same  conclusions,  especially 
as  the  historic  **  means  of  grace  "  w^ere  replaced  by  the 
"  more  efficient  "  anxious  bench  and  class-meeting.  So 
both  tendencies  cooperated  to  diminish  the  importance  of 
the  great  transactions  of  congregational  life. 

In  some  quarters,  among  the  older-fashioned  Presby- 


lOO  THE   PRESBYTERIAXS.  [Chap.  i\. 

terian  bodies,  the  venerable  ceremonial  which  came  down 
from  the  times  of  the  Covenanters  still  sustained  the  sense 
of  a  solemn  spiritual  mystery  and  an  awful  presence  in  the 
communion.  The  element  of  awe,  indeed,  was  excessive 
and  oppressive,  surpassing  that  of  Roman  or  Anglican  ritual 
in  its  effect  upon  sensitive  minds.  By  a  reaction  from  this  the 
churches  generally  had  passed  to  a  sordid  "  simplicity,"  in 
which  the  presence  of  the  sacramental  elements  seemed 
an  incongruity.  The  long  white  communion-tables  had 
vanished  from  the  aisles.  The  season  of  preparation  had 
been  minimized.  The  "fencing  of  the  tables"  had  been 
replaced  by  an  address,  solemn  or  cheerful,  as  the  mood 
of  the  minister  might  be.  No  doubt  the  great  end  of  the 
sacrament  was  attained  in  innumerable  instances,  but  it 
often  was  rather  by  what  the  single  worshiper  brought  to 
the  rite,  than  by  any  help  beyond  the  most  meager  which 
was  offered  him  in  the  manner  of  the  service.  And  at 
best  there  was  the  great  fault  of  the  Awakening — private 
and  individual  devoutness  without  the  life  of  social  com- 
munion. 

In  all  these  things  we  have  changed  much  in  the  last 
sixty  years,  as  have  all  the  American  churches.  Nor  are 
we  at  the  end  of  the  change.  Presbyterians,  as  the  most 
conservative  of  American  churches,  naturally  do  not  mov^e 
rapidly  in  such  cases,  nor  is  it  desirable  that  they  should. 
But  as  an  historic  church,  with  roots  in  centuries  past,  it  is 
not  for  them  to  accept  the  brief  and  narrow  traditions  of 
a  recent  date  as  limiting  their  action  :  John  Calvin  and 
John  Knox  were  born  before  John  Wesley. 

The  same  duty  of  progress  in  the  light  of  their  own 
history  arises  in  view  of  the  social  problems  of  the  eco- 
nomic and  political  field.  In  dealing  with  social  reforms 
the  utilitarian  spirit  of  the  Awakening  is  a  constant  dan- 
ger.    The  shortest,  quickest,  readiest  means  are  preferred 


''  l^HE    SPIRIT  OF  ALL    AGES.''  lOI 

to  every  other,  often  to  the  sacrifice  of  interests  not  less 
important  than  those  we  are  seeking  to  promote.  At  the 
same  time  the  reaction  against  the  excessive  individualism 
of  the  Awakening  plunges  men  into  excesses  of  feeling  and 
statement  which  obscure  the  valuable  truths  in  Puritanism 
and  Methodism.  Soon  we  may  come  to  the  extravagances 
of  the  French  theorist,  who  declared  that  society  is  the 
only  concrete  moral  reality,  that  the  individual  is  an  ab- 
straction merely,  and  that  conscience  is  a  purely  social 
function. 

\  Now  whatever  else  the  doctrine  of  election  may  stand  for, 
it  is  the  assertion  of  the  permanent  worth  of  the  individual 
before  the  greatest  of  all  standards,  the  judgment  of  God. 
Our  fathers  prized  it  as  a  truth  which  counteracted  the 
mere  corporate  religiousness  of  Rome,  as  that  proffered  a 
certain  assurance  of  salvation  on  condition  of  complying 
with  the  terms  laid  down  by  the  corporation.  They  thus 
brought  into  view  the  great  truth  which  Puritanism  exag- 
gerated, and  yet  they  laid  equal  emphasis  on  the  organic 
character  of  Christian  society  in  family,  state,  and  church. 
The  problem  of  to-day  is  the  reconciliation  of  these  two 
tendencies — the  social  and  the  individual.  The  spirit  of 
an  age  that  is  passing  away  laid  excessive  stress  on  the 
individual  life.  That  of  the  age  on  which  we  have  entered 
is  exaggerating  equally  the  social  life.  It  is  our  problem 
to  rise  above  the  Spirit  of  the  age,  and,  as  Jean  Paul  says, 
to  enter  into  "  the  Spirit  of  all  ages,"  and  speak  his  lan- 
guage of  sobriety  and  reconciliation. 


CHAPTER    X. 

YEARS    OF    STRIFE,    1831-36. 

The  opening  of  the  new  age  upon  American  Presbyte- 
rianism  was  not  peaceful.  It  found  elements  of  fermenta- 
tion and  discord  at  work  which  precipitated  division.  The 
years  1 830-50,  indeed, were  a  time  of  controversies  through- 
out the  churches  of  America.  Public  debates  and  heated 
newspaper  discussions  were  heard  on  all  sides,  and  the  ef- 
fective controversialist  was  a  man  of  weight  and  influence 
in  the  councils  of  his  denomination.  Both  within  and  be- 
tween the  several  churches  lines  of  division  were  sharply 
drawn,  and  a  large  share  of  personal  energy  was  given  to 
border  warfare  along  them. 

The  first  sundering  of  church  bonds  came  about  among 
the  Covenanters.  For  many  years  two  tendencies  had 
been  manifest  as  regards  the  attitude  of  political  dissent 
from  the  American  government.  Some  were  disposed  to 
sharpen  it;  others  to  return  to  the  attitude  of  1777,  when 
the  Covenanters  acknowledged  the  new  American  govern- 
ment as  entitled  to  their  allegiance,  in  view  of  the  strongly 
Christian  language  of  the  public  papers  of  the  Continental 
Congress.  The  absence  of  any  expression  of  Christian 
loyalty  in  the  national  Constitution  of  1787,  and  the  rati- 
fication by  the  Senate  and  the  President  of  a  treaty  in 
which  a  Moslem  power  was  assured  that  **  the  United 
States  is  not  a  Christian  nation,"  naturally  strengthened 
the  hands  of  the  conservatives.  At  last  the  matter  came 
to  open  debate  in  the  General  Synod  of  183 1,  and  at  its 


DIVISION  AMOXG    COVENANTERS.  103 

next  meeting,  two  years  later,  resulted  in  a  division.  The 
cause  was  found  largely  in  the  altered  political  situation 
of  the  country.  The  extension  of  the  suffrage  without 
regard  to  property  qualification  had  gone  on  simultane- 
ously with  the  rise  of  political  issues,  such  as  antislavery 
and  antimasonry,  in  which  Covenanters  felt  an  intense 
interest.  Then,  as  now,  conservative  Covenanters  worked 
to  influence  the  votes  of  others,  while  refusing  to  vote 
themselves.  The  party  of  movement  felt  this  to  be  an 
inconsistency,  and  several  of  them  were  naturalized  and 
cast  their  votes  in  the  presidential  election  of  1832.  At 
a  special  meeting  of  the  Eastern  Sub-Synod,  in  which  the 
conservatives  had  control,  five  ministers  were  suspended 
for  subscribing  and  publishing  a  paper  which  declared  that 
"  since  the  commencement  of  Christianity,  no  government 
on  earth  has  had  fairer  claims  to  recognition  as  the  ordi- 
nance of  God  than  that  of  the  United  States."  The  min- 
isters thus  suspended  refused  to  recognize  the  sentence,  as 
a  piece  of  party  strategy,  since  it  was  inflicted  less  than  a 
month  before  the  meeting  of  the  General  Synod  in  Phila- 
delphia. One  of  them.  Rev.  S.  W.  Crawford,  was  the 
retiring  moderator,  and  as  he  insisted  on  preaching  the 
sermon  the  conservatives  withdrew  and  constituted  the 
General  Synod  in  another  church.  The  division  thus 
consummated  was  in  part  one  between  town  and  country, 
the  conservatives  predominating  in  the  latter.  The  com- 
parative strength  of  the  two  parties  was  matter  of  dispute, 
but  it  seems  probable  that  the  conservatives  were  slightly 
the  more  numerous.  In  a  lawsuit  for  the  property  of  the 
church  in  Pittsburg  they  were  unsuccessful,  a  result  due 
in  great  measure  to  the  able  defense  made  by  a  3^oung 
lawyer  named  Edwin  M.  Stanton. 

Besides  the  objections  to  the  Constitution  and  the  treaty 
with  Algiers,  the  strict  Covenanters  complained  that  the 


I04  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  x. 

national  government  **  gives  a  legal  security  to  gross  her- 
esy, blasphemy,  and  idolatry,  under  the  notion  of  liberty 
of  conscience,"  and  "  makes  no  provision  for.  the  interest 
of  true  religion,"  while  "  the  major  part  of  the  States 
recognize  the  principle  of  slavery."  Yet  a  few  among 
them  thought  them  not  sufficiently  loyal  to  the  Covenanter 
principle.  After  petitioning  for  several  years,  in  1840  Rev. 
Robert  Lusk  and  David  Steele  withdrew,  and  with  three 
elders  constituted  the  Reformed  Presbytery  of  North 
America.  This  small  body,  the  extreme  right  wing  of 
Presbyterianism,  required  its  members  to  abstain  from 
association  with  others  for  any  moral  purpose,  besides  in- 
sistingf  on  the  maintenance  of  several  old  usages,  such  as 
"lining  out  the  Psalms"  before  singing  and  proclaiming  the 
banns  in  marriage.  At  this  time  all  Covenanters,  as  well 
as  the  Associate  Church,  were  strict  in  enforcing  the  rule 
against  **  occasional  hearing,"  i.e.,  participation  in  any  act 
of  public  worship  with  persons  of  another  communion 
than  their  own.  Dr.  John  Black,  of  Pittsburg,  belonged 
to  the  progressive  party,  yet  two  members  of  his  church 
were  placed  under  discipline  for  pausing  on  the  sidewalk 
on  their  way  from  church  to  hear  what  a  Seceder  minister 
was  saying  in  a  communion  address. 

Up  to  about  1828  there  was  Qomparative  quiet  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  The  alarm  over  Hopkinsianism 
had  died  away,  and  never  had  been  very  extensive.  The 
dispute  as  to  the  African  Theological  School  had  come  to 
an  end  with  the  dissolution  of  tlie  school.  The  policy  of 
cooperation  with  the  American  Board  in  foreign  and  In- 
dian missions  had  gained  ground  rather  than  lost  it.  There 
was  a  general  acquiescence  in  the  Plan  of  Union,  even 
among  those  who  misliked  its  blending  of  Presbyterian 
and  Congregationalist  elements  in  the  new  churches  of  the 
West.      Differences    as   to    the    strictness  with  which  the 


albp:rt  barxes's  sermox.  105 

Westminster  standards  were  accepted  were  tolerated  with- 
in the  church. 

The  rift  between  conservatixes  and  progressives  began 
in  New  Enghmd  itself.  In  1828  Dr.  Nathaniel  W.  Taylor, 
professor  of  didactic  theology  in  the  theological  school  of 
Yale  College,  delivered  a  concio  ad  clenini  in  connection 
with  the  connnencement  exercises,  which  ran  a  new^  line  of 
division  among  the  ministry  of  the  Connecticut  churches. 
Hopkinsians  like  Dr.  Strong,  Dr.  Griffin,  and  Dr.  Richards 
repudiated  the  new  improvements  upon  Calvinism  no  less 
than  did  the  old-fashioned  Calvinists  like  Dr.  Woods,  and 
indeed  with  reason,  as  in  some  respects  Dr.  Taylor  was  in 
agreement  with  the  latter  against  Dr.  Hopkins. 

Next  year  Albert  ^Barnes,  a  young  graduate  of  Princeton 
Seminary,  and  pastor  of  the  church  in  Morristown,  N.  J., 
preached  a  sermon  on  "The  Way  of  Sahation,"  in  which 
he  was  said  to  agree  substantially  with  Dr.  Taylor,  as  in 
denying  "  that  the  sinner  is  held  to  be  personally  responsi- 
ble for  the  transgressions  of  Adam,  or  of  any  other  man ; 
or  that  God  has  given  a  law  which  man  has  no  power  to 
obey  "  ;  yet  he  affirmed  "  that  in  connection  with  the  sin 
of  Adam,  or  as  a  result,  all  moral  agents  in  this  world  will 
sin — and,  sinning,  will  die."  He  admitted  that  ''this  lan- 
guage .  .  .  does  not  accord  with  that  used  in  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,"  but  challenged  those  who  rejected  it  to 
produce  from  the  standards  a  warrant  for  the  ordinary 
statement  that  the  sin  of  Adam  is  imputed  to  his  poster- 
ity. In  his  view,  the  W^estminster  divines  like  President 
Edwards  were  realists,  holding  that  "  a  personal  identity 
was  constituted  between  Adam  and  his  posterity." 

A  minority  of  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  led  by 
Dr.  Ashbel  Green,  regarded  the  sermon  as  justif}ing  a 
refusal  to  install  him  as  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  to 
which  he  was  called  in  1830,  to  succeed  Dr.  James  P.  Wil- 


I06  THE   PRESBYTERIAXS.  [Chai-.  x. 

son.  They  contended  that  the  church  never  had  heard 
him  preach,  and  seemed  to  have  called  him  on  the  merits 
of  this  sermon,  so  that  it  was  fairly  before  them.  They 
also  pleaded  their  right  to  examine  him  on  his  doctrinal 
soundness,  instead  of  admitting  him  to  a  seat  in  Presby- 
tery on  his  papers  of  dismission  from  the  Presbytery  of 
Elizabethtown.  Mr.  Barnes  submitted  a  written  state- 
ment of  his  views,  and  Presbytery,  by  a  two-thirds  vote, 
proceeded  to  install  him.  The  minority  protested  and 
appealed  to  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia,  which  sustained 
their  appeal,  and  ordered  Presbytery  to  "  hear  and  decide 
upon  the  objections  "  made  to  Mr.  Barnes's  orthodoxy, 
and  "  take  such  order  as  is  required  by  a  regard  to  the 
purity  of  the  church  and  its  acknowledged  doctrines  and 
order."  The  Presbytery,  which  now  had  an  old-school 
majority,  might  either  have  condemned  the  sermon  with- 
out asserting  the  authorship,  as  the  Assembly  had  done  in  a 
similar  case  in  1810,  or  it  might  have  put  Mr.  Barnes  on 
trial  for  heresy  at  the  instance  of  some  responsible  prose- 
cutor, and  proved,  among  other  things,  his  authorship  of 
the  sermon.  It  took  neither  course,  but  adopted  a  minute 
assuming  the  authorship,  and  condemning  the  sermon  as 
"  highly  objectionable,  and  manifestly,  in  some  of  its  lead- 
ing points,  opposed  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Confession  of 
Faith."  It  appointed  a  committee,  with  Dr.  Green  as 
chairman,  to  wait  on  Mr.  Barnes  and  persuade  him  to  re- 
tract. He  very  properly  refused  to  submit  to  this  uncon- 
stitutional mode  of  procedure. 

The  case  came  before  the  Assembly  of  1831,  the  largest 
that  had  ever  met,  and  Dr.  Green  alleges  that  no  stone 
had  been  left  unturned  to  secure  a  new-school  majority. 
It  expressed  its  disapprobation  of  "  a  number  of  unguarded 
and  objectionable  passages  "  in  the  sermon,  but  declared 
that  the  Presbytery  ought  to  have  been  satisfied  with  the 


• '  MISA  DEL  PHI  A . "  I O  7 

informal  explanations  given  by  its  author  when  the  matter 
first  came  before  it. 

Philadelphia  was  now  become  a  center  of  theological 
disturbance  which  affected  the  whole  church.  The  meet- 
ing-place of  the  Assembly,  which  regularly  held  its  ses- 
sions in  the  v^ery  church  of  which  Mr.  Barnes  was  pastor, 
it  was  able  to  affect  and  influence  the  whole  church  as 
was  no  other  city.  Dr.  Green,  Dr.  Junkin,  Mr.  McCalla, 
Mr.  Engles,  made  up  a  force  on  the  old-school  side,  which 
Dr.  Ely — now  more  liberal  than  in  the  days  of  his  "  Con- 
trast " — Dr.  Potts,  Dr.  Skinner,  and  Mr.  Barnes  hardly 
balanced,  especially  as  the  last  was  constitutionally  indis- 
posed to  polemics  and  gentle  in  temper.  New  York  was 
hardly  more  quiet.  Between  them  lay  Princeton,  where 
the  party  of  moderation,  conservative  and  yet  irenic,  had  its 
headquarters,  with  Dr.  Miller  and  the  Alexanders  as  its 
leaders.  While  decidedly  old  school  in  their  theology, 
they  deprecated  the  polemic  spirit  in  which  Mr.  McCalla 
and  some  others  had  entered  upon  the  matter.  James  W. 
Alexander  proposed  to  change  Philadelphia  to  Misadel- 
phia,  and  compared  some  of  his  brethren,  "  who  have  com- 
mitted themselves  as  partisans  much  in  advance  of  their 
own  convictions,"  to  the  Irishman  in  Judge  Brackenridge's 
'*  Modern  Chivalry,"  **  who  cast  himself  from  his  coach 
into  a  row,  crying,  *  Heaven  direct  me  to  the  right  side!'  " 
This  party  was  especially  strong  in  the  South,  where  it 
was  represented  by  the  saintly  Dr.  John  H.  Rice,  of  Union 
Theological  Seminary.  He  pleaded  that  "  the  church  is 
not  to  be  purified  by  controversy,  but  by  holy  love." 
Twenty  years  before  this  he  had  done  much  to  assuage 
the  sharpness  of  party  feeling  by  an  irenic  sermon  at  the 
opening  of  the  General  Assembly.  But  in  his  last  visit  to 
the  North,  in  1830,  he  wrote :  "  I  am  not  gratified  by  any- 
thing I  see  in  the  state  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  from 


I08  THE   PRKSBYTEKIANS.  [Chai-.  x. 

Richmond  to  New  York.  Everything  is  cold  and  dtad 
except  the  spirit  of  controversy.  In  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  things  are  in  a  dismal  condition."  He  labored  to 
countervail  the  rage  of  partisan  and  even  sectarian  feeling 
by  rousing  the  church  to  a  fresh  zeal  for  missions,  and 
yearned  for  ''  a  larger  increase  of  holiness  among  minis- 
ters." 

As  the  decade  advanced,  there  was  an  increase  chiefly 
of  controversial  eagerness.  One  symptom  of  this  was  the 
frequency  of  prosecutions  for  heresy.  George  Duffield,  a 
grandson  of  the  Revolutionary  chaplain,  was  tried  before 
the  Presbytery  of  Carlisle  in  1832,  for  the  teachings  of 
his  book  on  *'  Regeneration  "  (Carlisle,  Pa.,  1832),  in  which 
the  new-school  positions  were  affirmed.  Presbytery  found 
against  him  in  eight  out  of  ten  charges,  but  earned  the 
censure  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  by  refusing  to  go 
further  than  to  ''  warn  him  to  guard  against  such  specula- 
tions as  may  impugn  the  doctrines  of  our  church."  Ed- 
ward Beecher,  J.  M.  Sturdevant,  and  William  Kirby,  all  of 
Illinois  College,  were  arraigned  before  the  Presbytery  of 
Illinois  in  1833,  for  teaching  the  New  Haven  doctrines; 
but  Presbytery  declared  that  they  "  do  not  teach  doctrines 
materially  or  essentially  at  variance  with  the  standards." 
Lyman  Beecher,  of  Lane  Seminary,  who  had  originated 
the  temperance  reform,  broken  the  power  of  Unitarianism 
in  Boston,  and  roused  eastern  Christians  to  the  spiritual 
needs  of  the  western  States,  was  prosecuted  before  the 
Presbytery  and  then  the  Synod  of  Cincinnati  in  1835,  ^or 
heresy,  slander,  and  hypocrisy,  by  Dr.  Joshua  L.  Wilson. 
He  was  acquitted  even  by  the  Synod,  which  was  old  school, 
by  a  good  majority  ;  yet  they  found  fault  with  his  "  dis- 
position to  philosophize"  in  the  treatment  of  important 
doctrines,  and  censured  his  use  of  ''  terms  and  phrases 
calculated  to  convey  ideas"  not  orthodox,  and  requested 


MR.  BARXES'S  SECOXD    TRIAL.  lOy 

him  to  publish  the  explanations  which  had  satisfied  them. 
Dr.  Wilson  appealed  to  the  Assembly,  but  the  accidental 
loss  of  his  papers  prevented  further  proceedings.  It  is 
surprising  that  Dr.  N.  S.  S.  Beman,  of  Troy  (N.  Y.),  escaped 
a  prosecution,  as  his  "  Four  Sermons  on  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Atonement"  (Troy,  1825)  must  have  been  more  offensive 
to  old- school  men  than  anything  Mr.  Barnes  wrote. 
*■  Barnes,  Beman,  and  Duffield  "  were  constantly  named  to- 
gether in  the  controversies  of  that  and  a  later  time.^ 

But,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the  church  was  far 
more  agitated  by  the  prosecution  of  Albert  Barnes  at  the 
instance  of  Dr.  George  Junkin  before  the  Second  Presby- 
tery of  Philadelphia,  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia,  and  the 
General  Assembly  of  1836.  This  was  based  on  doctrinal 
statements  contained  in  Mr.  Barnes's  **  Notes,  Explanatory 
and  Practical,  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  "  (Philadel- 
phia, 1835),  the  second  of  the  long  series  by  which  he 
placed  the  results  of  exegetical  scholarship  within  reach  of 
the  people,  and  especially  of  Sunday-school  teachers.  The 
Second  Presbytery  had  been  constituted  of  Mr.  Barnes's 
friends,  on  the  principle  of  "  elective  affinity."  This  imi- 
tation of  the  bad  precedent  of  i  762  had  just  been  antici- 
pated in  the  erection  of  a  Third  Presbytery  of  New  York. 
The  Synod  of  Philadelphia  in  1831  had  refused  to  take 
this  step,  even  when  ordered  by  the  General  Assembly ; 
the  Assembly  of  1832  had  to  effect  the  erection  over  the 
Synod's  head — another  bad  precedent.  A  Synod  of  Dela- 
w^are  was  constituted  in  1834  on  the  same  vicious  prin- 
ciple, and  the  Second  Presbytery  was  conjoined  with  it. 

In  1835  Dr.  George  Junkin,  now  the  president  of  La- 

1  Dr.  Beman  was  a  speaker  well  to  the  front  in  the  great  field-days  of  the 
Assembly.  He  also  was  an  ardent  Jacksonian  in  politics.  After  one  Assem- 
bly he  went  to  Washington  to  condole  with  the  President  as  to  his  political 
troubles.  "  To  tell  you  the  truth.  Dr.  Beman,  these  fellows  don't  bother 
me  half  so  much  as  do  the  dissensions  in  the  Presbyterian  Church." 


no  THE   rKESBYTERIANS.  [Chai-.  x. 

fayette  College,  appeared  before  the  Second  Presbytery  to 
present  charges  against  Mr.  Barnes  of  teachings  contrary 
to  the  standards.  Dr.  Junkin  had  entered  the  church  in 
1822,  with  the  majority  of  the  General  Synod  of  the  As- 
sociate Reformed  Church.  He  united  to  the  Seceder 
interest  in  nice  points  of  doctrine,  a  clear  head  and  a  re- 
markable power  of  self-control.  He  never  condescended 
to  the  asperities  of  controversialists  like  Mr.  McCalla,  while 
he  clung  to  the  matter  in  hand  with  Scotch- Irish  tenacity. 
Like  Dr.  Wilson,  he  accepted  frankly  the  responsibilities  of 
the  prosecutor,  which  the  old-school  men  generally  shrank 
from,  trying  to  secure  the  condemnation  of  new-school 
teachers  without  taking  the  legal  steps,  which  exposed 
them  to  formal  censure  if  they  failed  to  secure  a  convic- 
tion. To  avoid  the  odium  of  its  use,  however,  he  omitted 
the  term  *'  heresy  "  from  the  charges,  but  showed  some 
impatience  on  finding  Mr.  Barnes  and  the  Presbytery  not 
as  ready  as  himself  for  the  precipitation  of  a  new  struggle 
of  this  kind.  The  counts  of  the  indictment  were  much 
the  same  as  in  the  previous  arraignment  of  Mr.  Barnes's 
sermon,  but  they  were  based  on  a  publication  in  which  his 
views  had  been  stated  more  fully,  and  Dr.  Junkin  urged 
them  with  an  acuteness  Dr.  Green  did  not  possess.  Yet 
the  Presbytery,  as  was  expected,  acquitted  him  upon  each 
and  all  of  them,  asserting  that  he  had  not  taught  the  errors 
Dr.  Junkin  imputed  to  him. 

The  appeal  now  lay  to  Synod,  but  was  complicated  by 
the  action  of  the  Assembly  of  that  year.  In  the  Assembly 
of  1834  the  new-school  party  had  still  held  the  majority, 
as  in  every  Assembly  since  1831.  But  the  old-school 
minority  had  presented  a  Memorial  expressing  alarm  at 
**  the  prevalence  of  unsound  doctrine  and  laxity  in  disci- 
pline," and  enumerating  grievances,  one  of  which  was  the 
introduction  of  the  principle  of  elective  affinity  in  the  con- 


THE   "ACT  AND    TESTIMONY:''  III 

stitution  of  Synods  and  Presbyteries.  When  the  Assembly 
refused  to  accede  to  the  requests  of  the  memoriahsts,  these 
embodied  them  in  an  "  Act  and  Testimony  "  against  prev- 
alent "  errors,"  which  they  issued  to  the  church  with  their 
signatures.  The  emphasis  and  definiteness  of  this  protest 
greatly  strengthened  the  old-school  party,  especially  in  the 
South,  which  was  practically  the  arbiter  between  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  England,  and  resulted  in  an  old-school 
majority  in  the  Assembly  of  1835.  This  adopted  in  the 
main  the  prayers  of  the  memorialists,  and  called  the  attention 
of  the  Presbyteries  to  the  list  of  errors  alleged.  It  also 
enacted  that  the  Synod  of  Delaware  should  form  a  part 
of  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania  at  and  after  the  first  meet- 
ing of  the  latter,  but  did  not  touch  the  Presbyteries  which 
had  been  formed  on  the  same  principle. 

When  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  met,  and  Dr.  Junkin's 
appeal  came  up  for  action,  Dr.  Ely  challenged  its  right  to 
entertain  the  appeal,  as  the  Presbytery  and  Mr.  Barnes  had 
not  been  subject  to  its  jurisdiction  at  the  time  of  his  trial; 
and  on  this  ground  the  Second  Presbytery  refused  to  trans- 
mit to  Synod  the  books  and  papers  necessary  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  process.  The  Synod,  however,  acted  on 
what  it  believed  to  be  the  intention  of  the  Assembly, 
entertained  and  sustained  the  appeal,  and  declared  that  the 
errors  charged  w^ere  some  of  them  fundamental,  and  all  of 
them  contrary  to  the  standards,  and  that  they  contravened 
"  the  system  of  truth  therein  taught,  and  set  forth  in  the 
Word  of  God."  Then,  without  passing  upon  Mr.  Barnes's 
denial  that  he  had  taught  these  errors,  they  proceeded  to 
suspend  him  from  the  ministry  until  he  should  retract  them. 

For  a  year  he  sat,  in  submission  to  this  sentence,  a 
hearer  in  his  own  church,  awaiting  the  decision  of  the 
next  Assembly  upon  his  appeal.  The  feeling  now  spread 
widely  that  the  conservatives  had  abused  their  opportu- 


112  rilE   PRESBYTERIAXS.  [Chap.  x. 

iiity,  and  sympathy  both  inside  and  outside  the  church  ral- 
lied to  the  scholar  and  pastor  who  had  been  subjected  to 
this  harsh  sentence.  It  was  felt  that  anything  less  than 
heresy  could  not  justify  it,  and  the  word  "  heresy  "his  prose- 
cutors had  avoided  expressly  because  of  the  odium  attach- 
ing to  its  use.  The  Assembly  of  1836  reflected  the  re- 
action of  feeling.  Although  Dr.  Witherspoon,  of  South 
Carolina,  was  chosen  moderator  by  the  old  school,  over 
Dr.  Absalom  Peters,  the  leader  of  the  new-school  men  on 
the  floor  of  the  Assembly  and  the  great  champion  of  the 
Plan  of  Union,  yet  the  full  Assembly  a  few  days  later  was 
found  to  have  a  new-school  majority.  The  protest  and 
appeal  of  Mr.  Barnes  was  sustained,  and  the  action  of  the 
Synod  reversed,  but  with  a  resolution  deprecating  any  ap- 
proval of  the  errors  charged  upon  him.  On  the  contrary, 
they  declared  their  adoption  of  the  Confession  "  ex  animo 
on  the  points  of  doctrine  in  question,  according  to  the 
obvious  and  most  prevalent  interpretation." 

If  the  new-school  party  had  stopped  with  this  they 
would  have  strengthened  their  own  cause.  But  they  also 
proceeded  to  abuse  their  victor)-  by  taking  counsel  with 
extremists  to  the  alienation  of  moderate  men.  The  As- 
sembly of  1836  had  made  arrangements  to  adopt  the 
Western  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  established  in  Pitts- 
burg in  1 83 1,  as  the  organ  of  the  church  for  tlie  conduct 
of  its  work  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen.  The  friends 
of  the  American  Board  now  rallied  to  maintain  what  they 
called  the  Assembly's  compact  with  that  board,  and  repu- 
diated that  with  the  Pittsburg  society  by  a  small  majority. 
An  attempt  was  made,  and  onl)^  just  defeated,  to  place 
the  Boards  of  Education  and  of  Domestic  Missions  in  the 
hands  of  those  who  desired  to  have  them  also  merged  in 
voluntary  and  undenominational  societies.  Worst  of  all, 
the  elective-affinity  principle,  as  applied  to  the  organiza- 


THE   POLICY  OF  SEPARATIOX.  II3 

tion  of  Presbyteries,  which  the  Assembly  of  1835  had  set 
aside,  was  restored  on  appeals  from  the  action  of  the  Synod 
of  Philadelphia. 

The  old-school  men  were  brought  into  such  a  state  of 
agitation  by  these  measures  that,  with  little  delay,  they 
began  to  take  steps  for  the  division  of  the  church.  No  doc- 
trinal action  of  the  Assembly  either  called  for  or  justified 
this  procedure.  While  acquitting  Mr.  Barnes  on  ground 
of  fact — on  which  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  had  not  passed 
— it  had  condemned  in  thesi  the  errors  charged  upon  him. 
But  the  other  measures  of  the  Assembly  of  1836  were  such 
as  tended  to  undermine  the  constitution  of  the  church ; 
and  even  new-school  men  showed  by  their  actions  a  dec- 
ade later  that  they  did  not  care  to  vindicate  them.  While 
much  was  said  of  doctrinal  differences  in  the  subsequent 
protests,  the  strength  of  the  old-school  policy  lay  in  the 
purpose  to  maintain  the  constitutional  character  of  the 
church  ;  and  many  gave  their  support  to  the  old  school  who 
were  not  made  uncomfortable  by  the  removal  of  Mr. 
Barnes's  suspension. 

One  of  the  first  steps  taken  was  to  seek  a  union  of 
forces  with  the  moderate  party,  especially  as  represented 
by  Princeton  Seminary.  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  indeed,  had 
furnished  Mr.  Robert  J.  Breckinridge  with  all  but  one  of 
the  series  of "  new-school  errors"  specified  In  the  Act  and 
Testimony  of  1835.  ^^t  the  organ  of  the  seminary  had 
treated  that  document  and  the  policy  it  represented  with 
contemptuous  disfavor.  In  the  autumn  of  1836  Drs.  Cuy- 
ler,  Junkin,  and  others  met  the  professors  In  Dr.  Hodge's 
study,  to  offer  reasons  why  Princeton  should  make  a  change 
of  front.  Among  the  considerations  employed  were  the 
perils  the  seminary  ran  of  being  transferred  to  new-school 
control,  and  the  Hkelihood  that  Mr.  Robert  Lenox  and 
other  laymen  would  take  steps  at  once  to  establish  a  dis- 


114  THE  rRESBVTERIANS.  [Chap.  x. 

tinctly  old-school  seminary,  unless  Princeton  abandoned 
its  opposition  to  the  old-school  policy.  The  conference 
did  not  seem  to  attain  its  end,  yet  from  that  time  the  ven- 
erable senior  professors,  Alexander  and  Miller,  are  found 
in  hearty  cooperation  with  the  old-school  party  of  action. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  the  new-school  men  showed  much 
desire  to  aid  Dr.  Miller  and  the  rest  in  the  efforts  they  had 
made  to  maintain  Princeton  in  an  attitude  of  conciliation. 
In  January,  1836,  they  had  founded  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  New  York,  in  a  distinctly  new-school  and 
Plan-of-Union  spirit,  and  independent  of  the  control  of 
the  Assembly.  It  seemed  as  if  they  purposed  to  drive 
Princeton  into  the  arms  of  the  other  party,  where,  indeed, 
we  next  find  it. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE    DIVISION    OF    1 837-38. 

The  old-school  leaders  had  now  resolved  to  divide  the 
church,  either  by  a  voluntary  secession  and  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  True  Presbyterian  Church,  or  by  the  excision  of 
those  whom  they  regarded  as  un-Presbyterian  in  doctrine 
and  practice.  The  extreme  measures  of  the  Assembly  of 
1836  placed  the  initiative  in  their  hands,  and  they  hastened 
to  make  use  of  it. 

The  meeting  of  the  Assembly  of  1837,  in  Philadelphia, 
was  preceded  by  that  of  an  old-school  convention,  which 
met  a  week  earlier  with  a  view  to  "  effectual  measures  for 
putting  an  end  to  the  contentions  which  for  years  had 
agitated  the  church."  The  South  was  represented  largely, 
and  moderate  men  like  Dr.  Miller  took  part  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  a  "  Testimony  and  Memorial  "  to  the  General 
Assembly,  exhibiting  the  doctrinal  errors  and  lapses  in 
discipline  which  they  believed  were  defacing  the  church. 
The  list  of  the  former,  which  Dr.  Miller  revised,  was  now 
much  longer  than  in  the  ''  Act  and  Testimony,"  and  in- 
cluded even  points  of  Hopkinsian  teaching  which  the  new 
school,  and  also  New  Haven,  decidedly  rejected. 

From  the  first  the  old-school  men  had  a  decided  major- 
ity in  the  Assembly,  and  the  only  question  left  was  the 
best  way  to  use  it.  To  their  great  credit  it  must  be  said 
that  they  strove  to  avoid  a  violent  disruption,  by  coming 
to  terms  of  peaceful  separation  with  the  minority.     The 

115 


Il6  THE   PKESBYrERIANS.  [Chai>.  xi. 

first  step  taken  was  to  abrogate  the  Plan  of  Union  of  1801, 
which  had  added  much  to  the  numerical  strength  of  the 
church,  while  detracting  greatly  from  its  homogeneity. 
The  Assembly  of  1835,  out  of  deference  to  Dr.  Miller's 
statement  that  the  Plan  was  a  compact  which  the  Assem- 
bly had  proposed,  had  asked  the  General  Association  of 
Connecticut  to  agree  to  its  annulment,  so  far  as  concerned 
churches  yet  to  be  formed.  But  this  resolution  was  never 
transmitted  to  the  Association.  The  Assembly  of  1837 
now  voted  its  abrogation  in  a  resolution  which  carried 
with  it  no  qualifications.  After  adopting  the  Memorial  of 
the  convention,  and  citing  to  the  bar  of  the  next  Assem- 
bly any  Presbyteries  or  Synods  charged  with  the  disorders 
enumerated,  the  Assembly  took  up  the  chief  question.  A 
committee  of  both  parties  was  appointed  to  arrange  a  plan 
for  a  voluntary  division.  They  found  no  difficulty  in  agree- 
ing as  to  the  division  of  funds  and  institutions  of  the  church, 
and  the  disposal  of  its  archiv^es,  and  the  style  and  title  of  the 
proposed  new-school  Assembly.  But  the  new-school  men 
would  not  assent  to  an  immediate  division  by  the  action 
of  the  Assembly  then  in  session,  and  witl?  the  old-school 
body  recognized  as  the  historic  successor  of  the  undivided 
church.  They  required -that  the  plan  should  be  overtured 
to  the  Presbyteries  for  their  approval.  In  this,  as  in  other 
cases,  they  stood  on  the  letter  of  Presbyterian  law.  But 
ordinary  law,  in  the  old-school  view,  was  not  adequate  to 
the  occasion.  While  proposing  to  summon  to  the  next 
Assembly  Synods  and  Presbyteries  charged  with  irregu- 
larities in  procedure,  they  now  resolved  to  set  all  rules  of 
procedure  at  defiance,  rather  than  leave  their  policy  to  the 
chances  of  an  overture. 

For  a  time  the  old-school  men  were  at  a  loss  how  to 
proceed,  but  Dr.  Baxter,  the  successor  of  Dr.  Rice  at  the 
head  of  Union  Seminary  (Virginia),  struck  out  the  sug- 


THE   EXSCIXDrXG   ACTS.  II7 

gestion  that  the  abrogation  of  the  Plan  of  Union  was  re- 
troactive, and  that  the  Synods  and  Presbyteries  organized 
under  that  arrangement  had  ceased  to  form  a  part  of  the 
church.  Rev.  W.  S.  Plumer,  of  Richmond,  moved  a  dec- 
laration to  this  effect  with  regard  to  the  Synod  of  the  West- 
ern Reserve.  After  an  animated  discussion  it  was  carried 
by  a  strict  party  vote — 132  to  105.  The  Synods  of  Utica, 
Geneva,  and  Genesee,  all  in  western  New  York,  were  then 
exscinded  in  the  same  fashion,  but  by  smaller  majorities, 
as  a  number  of  the  moderate  party  would  have  preferred 
a  gentle  course  with  them.  Five  other  Synods  were  di- 
rected to  take  order  with  certain  of  their  Presbyteries 
which  were  charged  with  tolerating  errors  in  doctrine  or 
disorders  in  practice.  Ministers  and  churches  within  the 
bounds  of  these  Synods  who  were  Presbyterian  in  order 
and  doctrine  were  directed  to  seek  membership  in  which- 
ever Presbytery  of  the  church  they  found  most  convenient ; 
and  orderly  Presbyteries  to  report  to  the  next  Assembly 
for  direction. 

The  next  step  was  to  conform  the  methods  of  the  church 
to  what  the  old-school  men  regarded  as  strict  Presbyteri- 
anism,  although  it  really  was  one  of  the  most  questionable 
results  of  the  Awakening.  The  Western  Missionary  So- 
ciety was  erected  into  the  Assembly's  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions.  The  American  Education  and  Home  Mission- 
ary Societies  were  invited  to  cease  their  operations  within 
the  bounds  of  the  church,  leaving  the  field  to  the  Boards 
of  Education  and  of  Domestic  Missions. 

Thus  was  consummated  the  division  of  1837,  which  re- 
sulted in  cutting  off  533  churches  and  over  a  hundred 
thousand  communicants — a  larger  number  than  the  whole 
church  body  contained  in  1801,  when  the  Plan  of  Union 
was  set  on  foot.  The  surprise  and  indignation  with  which 
it  was  received  showed  that  the  old-school  leaders  had 


It8  '  THE  PRESBVTERTANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

been  far-sighted  in  refusing  to  risk  their  poHcy  upon  a 
reference  to  the  Presbyteries  by  overture.  If  they  had 
gone  to  the  church  with  such  a  proposal  there  would  have 
been  a  reaction  greater  than  that  of  1836.  But  most  men 
easily  come  to  accept  accomplished  facts,  however  they 
may  dislike  the  manner  of  their  accomplishment.  Even 
the  organ  of  Princeton,  in  vindicating  the  abstract  right 
of  the  Assembly  to  do  what  it  had  done,  declined  to  pass 
upon  the  wisdom  of  its  action.  Everywhere  the  .party  of 
action  found  itself  thrown  upon  the  defensive  and  forced 
to  adopt  an  apologetic  tone.  Eventually,  in  the  interest 
of  peace  in  its  own  fold,  the  old-school  Assembly  had  to 
declare  that  public  disapproval  of  the  exscinding  acts  was 
no  bar  to  ministerial  fellowship. 

After  the  excision  of  the  four  Synods,  the  new-school 
men  naturally  took  measures  to  vindicate  themselves  be- 
fore the  Christian  public,  and  to  assert  their  legal  and  con- 
stitutional rights.  In  August  they  met  in  convention  at 
Auburn,  N.  Y.,  and  outlined  their  policy.  The  four  Syn- 
ods and  their  Presbyteries  were  neither  to  abandon  the 
Plan  of  Union  and  the  churches  formed  under  it,  nor  to 
recognize  the  action  of  the  Assembly  as  having  any  valid- 
ity. They  were  to  send  their  delegations  to  the  Assembly 
of  1838,  and  claim  their  seats  by  constitutional  right. 
P2qually  important  was  the  preparation  of  the  Auburn 
Declaration,  in  which  the  charges  of  doctrinal  unsoundness 
made  by  the  old-school  convention  were  contrasted  point 
by  point  with  the  actual  teachings  of  new-school  men. 

In  accordance  with  this  program,  and  acting  on  legal 
advice,  the  delegations  from  the  exscinded  Presbyteries 
presented  their  credentials  to  the  Assembly  of  1838,  but 
the  clerks  of  that  body  acted  in  accordance  with  a  decla- 
ration they  had  made  the  year  before,  in  refusing  to  place 
their  names  on  the  roll.     Before  the  reading  of  the  clerks' 


THE  NEW  SCHOOL    ORGANIZE.  II9 

report  on  the  roll,  Dr.  William  Patton,  a  new-school  man, 
whose  name  was  on  the  roll,  tried  to  offer  a  motion  that 
the  roll  be  completed  by  adding  the  names  of  these  dele- 
gates. The  retiring  moderator.  Dr.  David  Elliott,  refused 
either  to  entertain  the  motion  or  to  recognize  an  appeal 
from  his  own  ruling.  The  clerks  then  reported  the  roll  of 
the  Assembly,  and  the  retiring  moderator  made  the  cus- 
tomary call  for  members  whose  credentials  had  not  yet 
been  presented.  Dr.  Erskine  Mason  now  rose,  holding  in 
his  hand  the  commissions  of  delegates  from  the  Presby- 
teries of  the  four  Synods,  which  the  clerks  had  rejected, 
and  moved  that  the  roll  be  completed  by  adding  these. 
Dr.  Elliott  again  declared  out  of  order  the  motion,  and 
also  an  appeal  from  his  decision.  Rev.  Miles  P.  Squier, 
representing  an  exscinded  Presbytery,  made  a  personal 
demand  that  his  name  be  added  to  the  roll,  but  was  de- 
clared to  have  no  standing  in  the  court.  Rev.  John  P. 
Cleveland  then  moved  that  Dr.  Beman,  of  Troy,  act  as  tem- 
porary moderator,  as  Dr.  Elliott  had  refused  to  discharge 
his  constitutional  duty,  and  took  the  vote  on  his  own 
motion  after  it  was  seconded.  The  new-school  delegates 
voted  for  it,  the  old-school  mostly  remaining  silent.  Dr. 
Beman  did  not  attempt  to  take  possession  of  the  chair,  but, 
standing  in  the  aisle  of  the  church,  he  entertained  motions 
to  organize  the  Assembly  by  the  choice  of  a  moderator 
and  clerks,  and  to  adjourn  its  meetings  to  the  First  Church. 
On  these  motions  the  new-school  men  alone  voted,  and 
they  alone  met  at  the  place  thus  designated.  They  pro- 
ceeded to  declare  the  repeal  of  the  exscinding  acts,  and 
they  elected  six  trustees  of  the  General  Assembly  to  dis- 
place old-school  men  then  in  office. 

These  six  brought  suit  before  the  courts  of  the  com- 
monwealth of  Pennsylvania  for  possession  of  the  property 
held  by  the  Assembly's  trustees,  since  the  charter  of  in- 


I20  THE   PRESBVTERTANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

corporation  had  been  granted  by  it.  The  general  doctrine 
of  the  American  state  is  that  an  ecclesiastical  body  is  a 
voluntary  association,  and  that  its  constitution  partakes  of 
the  nature  of  a  civil  contract  between  the  body  at  large 
and  each  of  its  members.  In  case  of  a  violation  of  this 
contract  the  civil  courts  will  grant  redress  upon  proper 
complaint.  This  view,  however,  made  its  way  more  slowly 
into  the  practice  of  Pennsylvania  than  that  of  the  sister- 
commonwealths,  probably  because  of  the  long  and  con- 
tinuous control  of  its  supreme  bench  by  Presbyterian  eld- 
ers of  Scotch- Irish  stock.  These  were  so  strong  in  their 
conviction  of  the  right  of  a  church  to  manage  its  own 
affairs,  independently  even  of  constitutional  restrictions, 
that  they  inclined  to  regard  the  highest  court  of  the  church 
as  possessing  an  authority  coordinate  with  their  own,  even 
where  civil  rights  were  in  question.  In  the  former  view 
of  the  law  the  new-school  case  was  a  very  strong  one,  and 
Chancellor  Kent,  of  New  York,  told  Dr.  Gardiner  Spring 
that  if  the  case  had  been  tried  in  his  own  commonwealth 
it  would  have  been  decided  in  their  favor.  As  it  was,  the 
verdict  of  a  Supreme  Court  jury,  under  instructions  from 
Judge  Rogers,  spread  dismay  among  the  old-school  men, 
as  it  was  against  them ;  but  the  court  in  banc  set  aside 
the  verdict  on  grounds  which  made  a  fresh  trial  useless. 
It  was  ruled  by  Chief-Justice  Gibson,  supported  by  Judges 
Huston  and  Kennedy  (Rogers  dissenting),  that  the  Plan 
of  Union  "  was  evidently  not  intended  to  be  permanent," 
and  as  it  had  been  enacted,  so  it  might  be  "  repealed,  by  an 
ordinary  act  of  legislation  "  ;  and  that  "those  who  built  up 
Presbyteries  and  Synods  on  the  basis  of  it  had  no  reason 
to  expect  that  their  structures  would  survive  it."  This 
may  be  law — it  is  not  history. 

When  the  separation  was  complete  it  was  found  that 
the  new  school  embraced  about  four  ninths  of  the  minis- 


THE   MODERATES.  121 

try  and  membership  of  the  church,  mostly  lying  in  the 
Northern  States.  It  coincided  in  the  main  with  the  lines 
of  discrimination  between  Scotch-Irish  and  New  England 
elements,  as  it  grew  largely  out  of  the  incompatibility  of 
their  tempers.  In  the  three  exscinded  Synods  of  New 
York,  only  six  churches  and  about  four  hundred  members 
went  over  to  the  old  school.  The  new-school  Assembly 
had  the  adhesion  also  of  the  Synods  of  Michigan  and 
eastern  Tennessee,  and  of  majorities  in  the  Synods  of  New 
York,  Albany,  and  Illinois,  as  well  as  half  the  Synods  of 
New  Jersey  and  Indiana,  and  strong  minorities  in  those  of 
Ohio  and  Cincinnati.  Elsewhere  the  line  of  severance  ran 
sharply  through  Presbyteries  and  even  congregations. 

The  moderate  men  in  some  cases  went  with  the  old 
school  from  theological  sympathy,  yet  under  protest ;  and 
in  others  they  sided  with  the  new  school  from  a  sense  of 
the  injustice  that  had  been  done  them.  Their  greatest 
strength  appeared  in  the  Synod  of  New  York,  which  di- 
vided between  new  and  old  school  at  its  session  of  1838 
in  Newburg.  Forty- nine  protested  against  any  division, 
claiming  to  be  the  undivided  Synod,  and  got  the  name  of 
the  High  School,  from  their  place  of  meeting.  Finally 
the  new  school  as  a  body  united  with  them  on  this  foot- 
ing, and  the  Synod  adhered  to  the  new-school  Assembly. 
The  Synod  of  Ohio,  while  adhering  to  the  old  school, 
recorded  upon  their  minutes  that  the  exscinded  Synods 
were  still  constitutionally  a  part  of  the  church.  Gardiner 
Spring,  Ichabod  Spencer,  and  Daniel  Lord  protested  form- 
ally against  the  excision  before  their  old-school  Presby- 
tery. 

The  division  was  effected  most  slowly  in  the  South,  out- 
side the  area  in  which  Hezekiah  Balch  and  his  disciples 
had  diffused  Hopkinsian  ideas.  Elsewhere  the  interest  in 
the  controversies  had  been  limited  to  a  few,  and  many 


122  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

had  to  take  time  to  make  up  their  minds.  The  suggestion 
to  withdraw  from  both  parties  and  organize  a  Southern 
Presbyterian  Church  was  made  in  South  CaroHna,  and 
probably  was  an  echo  of  the  nulUfication  excitement  of  a 
few  years  before.  In  a  similar  way  the  repugnance  of  the 
South  to  the  centralization  of  authority  in  the  national 
government  suggested  an  opposition  to  the  assumption  of 
authority  by  the  national  Assembly  of  the  church.  But 
altogether  less  than  a  fourth  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  new 
school.  It  was  alleged  as  early  as  1838'  that  the  prev- 
alence of  antislavery  sentiments  among  the  new-school 
men,  as  in  New  England,  was  one  of  the  reasons  for  the 
cooperation  of  the  South  in  the  policy  of  division.  This 
is  not  borne  out  by  the  facts.  It  is  true,  as  Dr.  Miller 
said  in  1823,  that  the  South  had  become  "very  sensitive, 
extremely,  perhaps  excessively  sensitive  on  this  subject  " 
long  before  this.  As  far  back  as  i  796  we  find  the  Pres- 
bytery and  the  Synod  of  South  Carolina  enjoining  upon 
James  Gililand,  pastor  of  Broadaway,  that  he  abstain  from 
preaching  in  favor  of  emancipation.  We  see  prominent 
ministers  like  Thomas  D.  Baird  and  David  Nelson  leaving 
the  South  to  find  a  home  in  the  free  States,  out  of  dislike 
for  an  institution  for  whose  abolition  they  were  not  free  to 
plead.  We  find  William  Maxwell,  of  Norfolk,  the  friend 
and  biographer  of  Dr.  Rice,  threatened  in  1827  with  a  coat 
of  tar  and  feathers  for  publishing  a  very  temperate  plea 
for  emancipation.  But  we  also  find  him  and  Mr.  Baird, 
in  the  Assembly  of  1837,  among  the  most  zealous  on  the 
old-school  side,      It  is  possible  that  Dr.  Baxter,  as  a  de- 

1  By  Rev.  Zebulon  Crocker,  in  "The  Catastrophe  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church"  (New  Haven,  1838).  He  was  the  delegate  from  the  Connecticut 
Association  to  the  Assembly  of  1837,  and  his  work  has  value  as  an  account 
of  the  contemporary  controversy  in  Connecticut.  He  says  slavery  was  not  a 
principal  cause  of  the  division,  but  a  secondary  one,  and  he  points  to  the 
fact  that  Dr.  Baxter,  who  presided  over  the  old-school  convention,  had  writ- 
ten in  defense  of  slavery  as  a  Scriptural  institution. 


DELIVERANCES   ON  SLAVERY.  123 

fender  of  slavery,  may  have  felt  more  comfortable  in  a 
church  which  had  fewer  Northern  men  in  it;  and  he  cer- 
tainly used  language  in  1837  which  showed  that  the  aboli- 
tion problem  to  his  own  mind  was  part  of  the  reasons  for 
a  division.  But  even  he  knew,  or  ought  to  have  known, 
that  the  Scotch-Irish  of  the  Middle  States  were  furnishing 
many  of  the  most  determined  enemies  of  human  bondage, 
and  that  the  church,  by  the  action  of  1818,  had  declared 
slavery  **  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  God,  and  totally 
irreconcilable  with  the  gospel  of  Christ."  He  must  have 
known  that  in  1833,  when  the  Synod  of  Kentucky  refused 
to  declare  against  slavery,  Robert  J.  Breckinridge  rose  and 
left  the  church,  exclaiming,  "  Since  God  has  forsaken  the'\ 
Synod  of  Kentucky,  Robert  J.  Breckinridge  will  desert  I 
it  too!"  Also  that  a  year  later  the  Synod  came  to  a/ 
better  mind,  condemned  slavery  as  a  source  of  degradation, 
ignorance,  cruelty,  and  licentiousness,  and  urged  gradual 
emancipation  of  the  slave.  Of  the  committee  which  re- 
ported that  action.  Dr.  Ashbel  Green  had  been  chairman, 
and  Dr.  Baxter  a  member.  The  question  had  come  up 
again  in  1835,  through  memorials  asking  the  Assembly  to 
act  in  accordance  with  its  previous  deliverances  in  work- 
ing for  emancipation.  It  had  been  referred  to  a  committee 
of  five,  of  whom  two  were  from  the  South,  with  Dr.  Miller 
as  chairman.  The  majority  report  to  the  Assembly  of 
1836,  in  which  the  new-school  men  had  control,  depre- 
cated action.  A  minority  report  by  Rev.  James  H.  Dickey 
— afterward  the  founder  of  Ashmun  Institute,  now  Lincoln 
University — was  in  harmony  with  the  deliverance  of  1 8 1 8. 
The  subject  was  indefinitely  postponed  after  an  excited 
discussion.  If  antislavery  had  been  a  distinctive  feature 
of  the  new  school  they  would  have  secured  action  on  this 
as  on  other  questions  they  cared  for.  In  that  case  there 
would  have  been  no  new-school  church  in  the  South. 


124  ^^^   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

Theologically  the  division  of  1837  grew  out  of  panic  and 
alarm,  rather  than  any  more  solid  reason.  There  was  no 
evidence  that  the  New  Haven  theology  had  extensively 
pervaded,  or  was  likely  to  pervade,  the  church.  Its  pecul- 
iarities were  nothing  but  a  temporary  phase  in  the  theo- 
logical speculation  of  New  England,  and  in  some  respects 
a  distinct  approach  to  Calvinistic  orthodoxy,  as  compared 
with  Hopkinsianism.  It  might  have  been  treated  with  the 
wise  patience  which  the  earlier  Assemblies  had  shown  to- 
ward that  form  of  speculation,  without  real  prejudice  to 
any  theological  or  spiritual  interest.  Even  to  prove  "  Tay- 
lorism  "  upon  men  like  Mr.  Barnes  and  Mr.  DufTield,  it  was 
necessary  to  hold  them  responsible  not  only  for  what  they 
actually  said,  but  for  what  their  critics  held  to  be  neces- 
sary inferences  from  their  words.  And  in  some  cases  what 
was  alleged  to  be  essential  to  the  Calvinistic  orthodoxy  of 
the  Confession  had  never  been  heard  of  until  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Thus  "the  federal  headship  of  Adam," 
and  *'  the  covenant  of  works  "  made  with  him,  which  Dr. 
Junkin  exalted  into  a  shibboleth,  were  nothing  but  Dutch 
"  improvements  upon  Calvinism,"  designed  to  break  some- 
what the  force  of  the  conception  of  irresponsible  sovereignty. 
In  truth  the  heated  atmosphere  of  church  controversy  was 
shown  to  be  the  worst  possible  for  weighing  the  exact  sig- 
nificance of  a  disputed  formula.  Nor  were  even  the  min- 
istry of  that  time  so  well  equipped  in  a  knowledge  of  his- 
torical theology  as  to  be  able  to  distinguish  between  the 
original  and  essential  features  of  Calvinistic  teaching  and 
the  later  accretions.  In  Princeton  Seminary,  indeed,  the 
subject  of  church  history,  to  say  nothing  of  the  history  of 
doctrme,  never  was  treated  as  an  important  theological  dis- 
cipline until  our  own  time. 

It  was  on  the  ecclesiastical  .side  that  the  old-school  pol- 
icy was  most  capable  of  defense.     Yet  even  here,  as  the 


BOARDS,   OR   SOCIETIES?  1 25 

subsequent  developments  showed,  a  little  patience  would 
have  secured  all  that  was  sought  and  fought  for.  The 
very  drift  of  thought  and  feeling,  which  had  made  men 
like  Drs.  Green  and  Miller  far  more  Presbyterian  in  their 
old  age  than  in  their  youth,  was  to  affect  the  new-school 
men  just  as  decidedly.  "High-church"  sentiment  was 
developing  rapidly  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  in  the 
others,  in  this  new  age  of  churchliness.  The  right  of  the 
church  to  create  and  control  its  own  agencies  was  obtain- 
ing a  strong  and  instinctive  recognition.  It  was  also  felt 
that  under  the  operation  of  the  Plan  of  Union  the  church 
was  becoming  a  dual  body,  with  two  sets  of  agencies  for 
its  work,  two  conceptions  of  ecclesiastical  order.  The  tone 
taken  by  the  friends  of  the  Plan,  especially  by  Dr.  Absalom 
Peters  in  his  "  Plea  for  Union  in  the  West,"  was  most  of- 
fensive to  all  decided  Presbyterians,  and  soon  became  so 
to  the  new-school  men  themselves.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  success  of  the  Board  of  Domestic  Missions,  created  in 
1 8 16  out  of  the  Standing  Committee  of  1802,  and  vested 
with  enlarged  powers  in  1827,  was  such  as  to  awaken  a 
desire  for  a  similar  independence  and  energy  in  other 
fields,  especially  the  foreign.  Dr.  Rice,  from  his  death- 
bed, wrote  to  ask  the  Assembly  of  1831  to  declare  that 
"  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  is  a  mis- 
sionary society,  and  e\'ery  member  of  the  church  is  a  life- 
member  of  said  society."  His  last  visit  to  the  North  had 
satisfied  him  that  the  two  denominations  were  drawing 
farther  apart,  and  that  Presbyterians  as  a  body  could  not 
be  brought  "  to  unite  under  what  is  thought  to  be  a  Congre- 
gational Board."  The  Assembly  took  no  action  on  his  sug- 
gestion, but  it  led  to  the  organization  of  the  Pittsburg 
society. 

As  might  be   expected,  this  decade   of   strife  was  not 
characterized  by  extensive  growth  of  the  church.     The 


126  THE   PRESBYTEKIANS.  [Chai'.  \i. 

undivided  church  reports  182,017  in  its  communion  in 
1831.  Its  old-school  in  1840  reports  126,583;  the  new 
school,  102,060.  This  was  the  more  remarkable  as  the 
opening  years  of  the  decade  had  been  a  time  of  intense 
revival  excitement  under  the  use  of  the  new  measure,  and 
it  is  estimated  that  between  1826  and  1832  not  less  than 
two  hundred  thousand  had  thus  been  added  to  the  evan- 
gelical churches.  It  also  was  noteworthy  that  the  business 
depression  of  1837  and  the  years  following  had  been  at- 
tended by  the  usual  awakening  of  religious  interest  in  the 
centers  of  population,  where  the  depression  was  most  se- 
verely felt.  Up  to  1835  Rev.  Charles  G.  Finney  was  in  full 
career  as  a  new-measure  revivalist,  and  much  of  his  work 
was  among  the  Presbyterians  of  central  New  York. 

In  fact,  what  John  Howe  calls  "  the  carnality  of  religious 
contention  "  was  abroad  in  the  church,  and  furnished  an 
obstacle  to  the  movement  of  the  spiritual  life.  It  was  all 
the  more  a  snare  because  the  baser  self  in  us  loves  to  be 
busy  about  the  surface  of  spiritual  things,  and  to  show 
great  fervor  for  religion  when  no  immediate  demand  for 
the  life  of  faith  is  pressed  upon  it.  "  Set  Jehu  to  pulling 
down  idols,  and  see  how  zealous  he  can  be,"  writes  an  old 
Puritan. 

It  was  a  poor  compensation  for  these  losses  that  the 
great  debates  in  Presbytery,  Synod,  and  Assembly  at- 
tracted attention  as  never  before,  and  familiarized  a  large 
part  of  the  outside  community  with  niceties  of  Presbyterian 
doctrine  and  law.  Henry  Clay  pronounced  the  oratorical  \ 
display  in  the  Assemblies  finer  than  anything  Congress  had 
to  show.  The  power  of  Calvinistic  training  to  develop 
strong  men  found  ample  illustration,  even  though  the 
strength  was  not  given  the  highest  direction.  The  old 
school  were  happy  in  the  support  of  representatives  of 
the  church's  past  in  the  much-loved  and  kindly  Archibald 


THE   LEADERS  IX  DEBATE.  12/ 

Alexander,  the  courtly  and  diplomatic  Samuel  Miller,  the 
masterful  Ashbel  Green.  Of  the  younger  generation,  the 
South  furnished  the  two  Breckinridges — John  a  saint  of 
unsurpassed  eloquence,  Robert  a  type  of  Kentuckian  chiv- 
alry ;  George  Addison  Baxter,  lucid  in  exposition,  resource- 
ful in  council;  John  Witherspoon  the  younger;  and  Wil- 
liam S.  Plumer,  a  most  impressive  speaker  even  to  the 
latest  years  of  a  long  life.  The  Nortli  furnished  in  George 
Junkin  a  representative  of  the  Scotch-Irish  strength  and 
tenacity;  in  John  McDowell  a  well-rounded,  practical  nat- 
ure; in  Charles  Hodge  a  Johannine  character,  yet,  like 
John,  capable  of  an  intense  theological  fervor;  and  in  Wil- 
liam L.  McCalla  a  rough  tongue,  which  lent  itself  to  telling 
epigram  and  kept  its  owner  all  his  life  in  hot  water. 

The  new-school  men,  like  progressive  parties  generally, 
impress  us  rather  more  by  their  intellectual  quality  than 
by  strength  of  character,  although  in  Thomas  H.  Skinner 
we  find  a  singularly  simple  and  unworldly  character. 
Samuel  Hanson  Cox,  a  convert  from  Quakerism,  possessed 
an  eloquence  which  would  have  found  no  superior  if  it  had 
been  better  sustained.  George  Potts  ill  spared  for  debate 
the  time  taken  from  an  exceptionally  devoted  pastorate. 
Nathaniel  S.  S.  Beman  had  a  restless  intellect  and  an 
aggressive  temper,  which  earned  him  the  title  of  the 
"  War-horse  of  the  New  School,"  but  is  now  best  remem- 
bered for  his  services  to  hymnology.  Erskine  Mason, 
with  far  less  than  his  great  father's  eloquence,  acquired  a 
wonderful  influence  over  his  people,  and  left  a  fragrant 
memory  of  personal  holiness  and  good  works.  Thomas 
McAuley,  the  first  president  of  the  (new)  Union  Semi- 
nary, carried  his  Irish  wit  and  pathos  to  the  support  of  a 
party  which  embraced  few  of  his  countrymen.  Judge  Jes- 
sup,  the  father  of  the  eminent  missionaries,  brought  great 
forensic  abilities  to  the  same  side,  his  defense  of  Mr.  Barnes 


128  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chai-.  xi. 

in  the  Assembly  of  1836  being  reckoned  his  greatest  tri- 
umph as  a  speaker. 

This  unhappy  decade  was  to  witness  yet  another  divis- 
ion among  Presbyterians,  and  the  most  unmeaning  yet. 
Simply  through  disaffection  to  an  act  of  discipline  three 
Presbyteries  of  the  Associate  Church  in  New  York  and 
Vermont  withdrew  in  1838  from  the  Associate  Synod, 
under  the  leadership  of  Drs.  Peter  Bullions  and  Andrew 
Stark.  Thus  the  Seceder  family,  like  the  Presbyterians  and 
the  Covenanters,  found  it  a  day  of  strife  and  of  division. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

FROM    WAR    TO    WAR,    1 84O-60. 

The  twenty  years  which  preceded  the  war  for  the  Union 
were  years  of  great  agitation  and  ferment  in  the  intellect- 
ual, social,  and  spiritual  life  of  America.  The  new  age 
began  to  declare  itself  and  its  character  by  a  thousand 
signs.  The  spirit  of  the  nation  found  expression  as  never 
before  in  literature  and  art,  in  social- reform  movements 
and  political  agitation.  A  new  criticism,  a  new  philoso- 
phy, a  new  scholarship  arose  to  multiply  the  objects  of 
public  interest,  and  to  add  to  the  complexity  of  existence. 
No  longer  content  with  reproducing  English  and  Scottish 
thought,  America  flung  herself  boldly  into  contact  with 
the  culture  of  the  civilized  world,  and  was  reinforced  in 
this  by  the  more  varied  immigration  from  all  the  countries 
of  northern  Europe. 

These  agitations  reached  the  spiritual  life  of  the  country 
largely  through  new  sects  or  agitations  within  the  existing 
churches.  Millerism,  and  its  offspring,  Adventism,  might 
be  traced,  along  with  sober  Premillenarianism,  to  the  inter- 
est in  Scripture  prophecy  which  first  awoke  in  the  group 
of  which  Edward  Irving  was  the  center.  Connected  with 
the  same  interest  in  the  future  were  the  various  theories 
of  annihilation  or  conditional  mortality,  which  now  com- 
peted with  the  older  Universalism  as  substitutes  for  the 
orthodox  eschatology.  Spiritualism  owed  its  strength  to 
an  instinctive  desire  to  pierce  the  veil  which  sunders  the 
dead  from  the  living,  and  know  more  definitely  '*  the  to- 

129 


I30  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

morrow  of  death."  Cam^beljisni  stood  for  a  revolt  from 
the  Methodism  of  the  Great  Awakening,  which  had  per- 
vaded all  the  churches  more  or  less  largely.  Socialism,  in 
various  phases,  especially  Fourierism  in  1842-49,  sought 
a  reconstruction  of  society  as  the  cure  for  the  evils  attend- 
ing the  industrial  revolution  which  was  in  progress.  The 
broad-church  tendency,  in  the  writings  first  of  Coleridge 
and  then  of  Thomas  Erskine,  of  Linlathen,  sought  a  deeper 
Scriptural  and  spiritual  basis  for  the  essential  truths  of 
Christianity  ;  while  Tractarianism,  affecting  chiefly  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  but  challenging  all,  insisted  that  that  foun- 
dation must  be  sought  in  Christian  tradition,  by  going  back 
to  the  church  of  the  first  centuries.  Perfectionism,  a  tend- 
ency no  longer  confined  to  the  Quaker  and  Methodist 
bodies,  urged  the  perfecting  of  holiness  as  the  central  prin- 
ciple and  first  duty  of  Christianity. 

Along  with  these  ran  the  great  sjocial.  agitations  which 
are  characteristic  of  our  age.  That  for  the  abolition  of 
war  had  taken  its  start  just  after  the  Peace  of  1815,  and 
was  no  longer  a  Quaker  peculiarity.  The  temperance 
agitation  may  fairly  be  dated  from  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher's 
''Six  Sermons  on  Intemperance,"  preached  in  1825  at 
Litchfield,  Conn.,  and  pubHshed  the  next  year.  About 
the  same  time  Albert  Barnes  formed  at  Morristown,  N.  J., 
the  first  temperance  society,  whose  members  were  pledged 
to  limit  their  consumption  of  "  apple-jack  "  to  a  pint  a  day, 
the  usual  allowance  being  a  quart.  The  demand  of  the 
movement  rose  rapidly  to  total  abstinence  from  intoxicants 
by  1836,  and  even  to  the  legal  suppression  of  the  traffic 
in  them,  and  such  laws  had  been  enacted  in  fourteen 
States  between  1850  and  1856.  Among  many  others.  Rev. 
Thomas  P.  Hunt,  a  brilliant  and  eccentric  preacher,  gave 
both  wit  and  eloquence  to  the  cause.  Dr.  Robert  Baird 
carried  the  propaganda  to  Europe.     The  immigration  of 


A  GITA  TION  AXD    WORK.  I  3  i 

Irish  and  German  Romanists  produced  a  violent  agitation 
against  that  church,  resulting  in  riot  and  arson  in  several 
cities.  Dr.  Thomas  Brainerd,  of  Philadelphia,  was  one  of 
those  who  offered  a  courageous  opposition  to  the  extrava- 
gances of  this  excitement, 1  while  Robert  J.  Breckinridge 
and  Nicholas  Murray  ("  Kirwan  ")  were  especially  promi- 
nent in  antagonizing  the  pretensions  of  American  Ro- 
manism. 

More  quiet  were  the  labors  for  the  extension  of  the 
Sunday-school  system  to  the  neglected  portions  of  the 
country,  and  for  the  universal  diffusion  of  the  Scriptures. 
To  both  Presbyterians  gave  large  support.  John  McCul- 
lagh  in  the  South  and  Benjamin  W.  Chidlaw  in  the  North 
will  live  forever  in  the  history  of  the  American  Sunday- 
school.  To  the  Bible  Society  Presbyterians  have  given 
of  men  and  means  beyond  any  other  American  church. 
The  care  of  the  poor,  especially  in  the  great  cities,  took  a 
fresh  impulse  toward  wisdom  and  kindliness  from  the  visit  of 
a  Scotchman  who  had  studied  Dr.  Chalmers's  work  in.  Glas- 
gow and  described  it  to  Americans.  He  was  reinforced 
in  this  by  Dr.  Alexander  Duff  during  his  memorable  visit 
of  1854,  which  did  so  much,  in  Dr.  Tyng's  words,  "to 
awaken  enlarged  desires  and  views  in  reference  to  the 
propagation  of  the  gospel  among  the  unevangelized  na- 
tions of  the  earth."  The  care  for  the  young  men  of  our 
great  cities  through  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions, begun  in  London  in  1844,  reached  America  seven 
years  later.  In  this  work  Presbyterians  were  amply  rep- 
resented by  WilHam  E.  Dodge,  George  H.  Stuart,  John 
Wanamaker,  and  a  host  of  others. 

But   it  was   especially  the   antislavery  agitation  which 

1  "  Our  Country  Safe  from  Romanism.  A  Sermon  delivered  at  the 
Opening  of  the  Third  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  April,  1841,"  Philadel- 
phia, 1 841. 


132  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

affected  the  churches.  That  had  originated  with  the 
Christian  people  of  both  North  and  South,  and  among 
Presbyterians  as  much  as  any.  A  type  of  these  was  James 
G.  Birnie,  of  Alabama,  who  emancipated  his  slaves,  came 
North,  and  devoted  his  life  to  the  cause  of  emancipation, 
becoming  in  1840  and  1844  the  first  antislavery  candidate 
for  the  Presidency.  Another  was  Dr.  David  Nelson,  of 
Tennessee,  who  emancipated  his  own  slaves,  denounced 
slave-holding  as  a  sin,  and  refused  to  commune  with  those 
who  practiced  it.  -  On  one  occasion  his  friends  had  to  hide 
him  from  a  Missouri  mob  for  proposing  to  his  congrega- 
tion a  subscription  to  buy  and  colonize  slaves.  Two  years 
later,  in  1837,  Rev.  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy  was  murdered  in 
Alton,  111.,  by  another  Missouri  mob  for  the  offense  of 
publishing  in  his  paper  moderate  articles  against  slavery. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  Princeton  Seminary,  and  a  member 
of  the  Presbytery  of  Illinois. 

The  indifference  or  hostility  of  many  ministers  and  Chris- 
tians to  the  cause  of  emancipation  had  the  effect  of  alien- 
ating some  badly  based  opponents  of  slavery  from  the 
churches,  and  of  leading  to  the  association  of  abolition  with 
infidelity  and  come-outer-ism.  Those  who  yielded  to  this 
drift  naturally  lost  influence  with  the  people  at  large ;  and 
while  the  noisiest  in  talk  and  the  extremest  in  their  de- 
mands, they  actually  contribute(i  little  to  the  final  result. 
They  denounced  both  church  and  state,  copying  the  *'  po- 
litical dissent"  of  the  Covenanters,  and  carrying  it  to  an 
extreme.  As  Albert  Barnes  said  of  them,  *'  If  a  just  cause 
could  have  been  killed  by  the  folly  of  its  friends,  the  cause 
of  African  liberty  would  have  been  so  by  the  spirit  and 
methods  of  the  abolitionists."  These  words  are  the  weight- 
ier as  coming  from  one  who  fearlessly  followed  his  own 
convictions  of  duty  in  this  matter.  "  His  book  on  Ameri- 
can slavery,"  says  Professor  Phelps,  "was  a  thesaurus  to 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  SLAVERY.  133 

the  abolitionists  for  twenty  years.  .  .  .  He  preached  the 
substance  of  his  book  to  his  people  at  a  time  when  millions 
of  property  sat  along  the  aisles  of  his  church,  coined  out 
of  slave-labor  on  cotton  and  rice  plantations.  He  did  it 
with  the  air  of  one  who  did  not  for  a  moment  conceive 
it  possible  to  do  anything  else.  His  more  timid  friends 
trembled  for  the  result,  but  not  he." 

Among  the  Presbyterian  churches  there  w^as  a  great 
difference  of  attitude  toward  slavery,  and  this  formed  one 
of  the  obstacles  to  their  union.  The  smaller  and  stricter 
bodies,  with  the  exception  of  the  Associate  Reformed 
Synod  of  the  South,  now  occupied  the  ground  taken  by 
the  Covenanters  at  the  opening  of  the  century,  in  exclud- 
ing slave-holders  from  their  communion.  And  those  who 
passed  over  from  them  to  the  old-school  church  naturally 
carried  with  them  a  strong  repugnance  to  human  bondage.* 

Neither  of  the  two  Assemblies  which  grew  out  of  the 
division  of  1837-38  was  ready  to  take  any  decided  ground, 
as  might  be  inferred  from  the  fiasco  of  1836.  Both,  in- 
deed, had  inherited  from  the  Assembly  of  1818  an  author- 
itative denunciation  of  slavery,  which  plainly  involved  the 
duty  of  slave-holders  in  the  membership  of  the  church  to 
take  steps  toward  emancipation,  or  of  rigorous  discipline 
in  that  of  the  church's  judicatories,  even  although  the 
Assembly  proceeded,  in  that  deliverance,  to  pronounce 
against  immediate  emancipation,  as  "  adding  a  second  in- 
jury to  the  first,"  since  it  added  that  this  consideration 
should  not  be  made  **  a  cover  for  the  love  and  practice  of 
slavery,  or  a  pretense  for  not  using  efforts  that  are  law^ful 
and  practicable  to  extinguish  the  evil." 

The  deliverance,  however,  remained  a  dead  letter  as  re- 
gards the  practice  of  the  church.      It  was  even  defied  form 
ally  and  openly.      The  Presbytery  of  Harmony,  S.  C,  in 
1836  resolved,  in  flat  contradiction  to  the  General  Assem- 


134  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

bly,  that  "  the  existence  of  slavery  is  not  opposed  to  the 
will  of  God  "  ;  and  the  Synod  of  Virginia  declared  that 
**  the  General  Assembly  had  no  right  to  declare  that  re- 
lation sinful  which  Christ  and  his  apostles  teach  to  be  con- 
sistent with  the  most  unquestionable  piety." 

In  the  meantime  the  legal  status  of  the  slave  and  his 
social  condition  grew  worse  instead  of  better.  The  eman- 
cipation societies,  founded  by  the  Quaker,  Benjamin  Lun- 
dy,  in  1815-26,  which  had  been  counted  by  the  score  in 
the  South,  passed  out  of  existence ;  and  the  policy  of 
silence  as  to  the  licentiousness  and  cruelties  attendant  on 
the  system  was  enforced  upon  all.  The  slave  States 
passed  laws  of  constantly  increasing  severity,  declaring 
the  slave  to  be  a  chattel  and  not  a  person,  and  forbidding 
even  his  owner  to  have  him  taught  to  read.  For  religious 
'instruction  he  was  shut  up  to  oral  teaching  at  white 
mouths,  and  some  colored  preachers  did  manage  to  acquire 
in  this  way  a  moderate  acquaintance  with  the  Scriptures. 
A  domestic  slave-trade  sprang  up  between  the  border 
States  and  the  States  farther  South,  where  the  cotton, 
rice,  and  sugar  plantations  furnished  a  market.  Hus- 
bands and  wives,  parents  and  young  children,  were  thus 
severed  for  life,  and  the  abomination  of  temporary  mar- 
riage was  actually  sanctioned  by  some  Christian  ministers. 

Here  certainly  was  a  large  field  for  reformatory  action 
on  the  part  of  conservative  men.  Those  who  disbelieved 
in  immediate  emancipation,  or  even  in  emancipation  at  any 
date,  might  have  united  to  demand  the  removal  of  these 
gross  iniquities.  Those  who  sought  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment for  a  Scriptural  justification  of  slavery  might  very 
well  have  insisted  that  the  merciful  provisions  of  the 
Mosaic  legislation  should  find  something  hke  a  counter- 
part in  that  of  free  America.  The  church  both  North  and 
South  might  have  been  a  unit  in  insisting  that  its  mem- 


NEW-SCHOOL   FAITHFULNESS.  1 35 

bers  should  keep  themselves  unspotted  from  these  evils, 
and  that  the  Word  of  God  should  be  made  accessible  to 
black  as  well  as  white.  Strong  and  united  action  even 
within  these  limits — as  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  pointed  out — 
would  have  taken  the  sting  out  of  the  abolitionist  argu- 
ment, and  prepared  the  way  for  peaceful  and  gradual 
emancipation.  It  was  the  unfaithfulness  of  the  American 
churches,  and  not  least  of  the  Presbyterian  churches,  to 
the  plain  requirements  of  duty,  which  suffered  the  evil  to 
grow  and  gather  head,  until  its  end  came  in  a  deluge  of 
human  blood. 

Of  the  two  AssembHes,  the  new- school  naturally  was  the 
more  faithful  to  the  deliverance  of  18 18,  which  it  repeated 
in  substance  in  1846  and  1849.  Yet  not  until  1850  did  it 
take  the  first  step  toward  reducing  doctrine  to  practice, 
declaring  slave-holding  a  matter  of  discipline  when  not 
excusable  by  special  circumstances.  In  1853  the  Assem- 
bly called  upon  its  Southern  Presbyteries  to  report  what 
had  been  done  to  purge  the  church  of  this  evil.  The  Pres- 
bytery of  Lexington  responded  that  ministers  and  mem- 
bers of  its  churches  were  slave-holders  by  choice  and  on 
principle.  As  the  Assembly  met  this  deliverance  by  a  de- 
cided condemnation,  the  Southern  part  of  the  new-school 
church,  numbering  six  Synods,  twenty-one  Presbyteries, 
fifteen  thousand  communicants,  seceded  and  formed  the 
United  Synod  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  It  at  once 
made  overtures  of  union  to  the  old-school  Assembly, 
meeting  in  New  Orleans ;  but  as  these  required"  a  con- 
demnation of  the  exscinding  acts  of  1837,  and  would  have 
plunged  the  church  afresh  into  the  controversy  over  slav- 
ery, they  were  decHned.  This  was  the  last  of  a  series  of 
ecclesiastical  divisions  over  slavery,  which  presaged  the 
secession  of  the  slave  States.  The  Associate  Reformed 
Presbyterians  had  divided  on  this  line  in  1821  ;  the  Meth- 


136  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

odists  and  Baptists  in  1844;  the  "Christian"  Connection 
in  1866. 

The  old- school  Assembly  preserved  its  unity  until  the 
eve  of  the  war  by  moving  in  the  other  direction.  There 
is  a  wide  gap  between  the  deliverance  of  18 18  and  those 
of  1845  ^^^d  1849.  The  Assembly  of  1845  went  no  fur- 
ther than  to  decline  to  deny  '*  that  there  is  evil  connected 
with  slavery,"  or  to  ''  approve  those  oppressive  and  defect- 
ive laws  by  which,  in  some  of  the  States,  it  is  regulated." 
Nor  would  it  by  any  means  "  countenance  the  traffic  in 
slaves  for  the  sake  of  gain ;  the  separation  of  husbands  and 
wives,  parents  and  children,  for  the  sake  of  *  filthy  lucre  ' 
or  for  the  convenience  of  the  master;  or  cruel  treatment 
of  slaves  in  any  respect."  But  it  recognized  no  responsi- 
bility on  the  part  of  the  church  to  secure  the  removal  of 
such  evils,  except  by  preaching  the  duty  masters  owed  to 
their  slaves,  and  had  not  a  word  to  say  of  the  duty  of 
emancipation,  or  of  the  sin  of  refusing  the  slave  access  to 
the  Scriptures.  The  deliverance  was  adopted  by  a  vote 
of  168  to  13.  In  this  view  slavery  was  no  longer  an  evil 
contrary  to  the  law  of  God  and  the  gospel  of  Christ,  but 
an 'institution  which  had  come  to  be  associated  with  cer- 
tain remediable  evils,  about  which  the  church  need  not 
greatly  concern  herself.  Yet  the  Assembly  of  1846  de- 
clared that  the  church  had  **  always  held  and  uttered  sub- 
stantially the  same  sentiments"  on  this  subject  In  1849 
the  Presbytery  of  Chillicothe,  O.,  memorialized  the  As- 
sembly, asking  that  slavery  be  declared  a  sin  and  the  lower 
courts  be  enjoined  to  exercise  discipline  to  remove  it  from 
the  church.  The  Assembly,  without  a  division,  voted  that 
it  was  "  inexpedient  and  improper  for  it  to  attempt  or  pro- 
pose "  measures  of  emancipation.  Four  members  of  the 
Assembly  protested,  declaring  that  the  dehverance  of  1845, 
**  instead  of  benefiting  the  slave,  it  is  feared  has  given  re- 


OLD-SCHOOL   NEUTRALITY.  I  37 

lief  to  the  consciences  of  slave-holders,  which  had  already 
begun  to  cry  out  against  their  wrong." 

One  result  of  this  new  policy  was  to  throw  the  old- 
school  church  upon  the  defensive  in  its  correspondence 
with  foreign  churches.  The  Irish  Presbyterian  Church  and 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  both  recognized  the  old- 
school  church  as  the  rightful  representative  of  Presbyte- 
rian orthodoxy  in  America.  In  their  correspondence  by 
letter  between  the  Assemblies,  the  Irish  and  Scotch  in- 
dulged in  the  language  of  strong  remonstrance,  and  were 
told,  in  pious  and  diplomatic  phrase,  to  mind  their  own 
business,  as  the  American  Assembly  declined  to  discuss 
the  subject  with  them.  As  a  consequence  the  corre- 
spondence came  to  an  end,  only  to  be  resumed  by  dele- 
gates after  the  war. 

Another  result  was  a  small  secession  from  both  the  old 
and  the  new  school  churches.  The  new-school  Presbytery 
of  Ripley,  O.,  had  already  withdrawn,  when  the  deliver- 
ance of  1845  led  a  minority  of  the  old-school  Presbytery 
of  Mahoning,  Pa.,  to  take  the  same  course.  The  two  or- 
ganized the  Synod  of  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church  in 
1847,  which  finally  united  during  the  war  for  the  Union 
with  the  new-school  Assembly,  because  of  its  increased 
faithfulness  in  dealing  with  slavery.  By  that  time  the 
Free  Church  extended  west  to  Iowa,  embracing  five  Pres- 
byteries and  forty-three  ministers. 

The  relations  of  the  old  and  new  school  churches  were 
naturally  distant  and  unfriendly  at  the  first.  It  was  not 
until  1862  that  they  got  so  far  as  to  exchange  greetings 
by  delegates.  By  that  time  both  parties  had  come  to  dis- 
cover that  the  distance  between  them  had  always  been  less 
than  it  seemed  in  the  heated  atmosphere  of  controversy, 
and  that  it  actually  was  growing  less  through  mutual  ap- 
proximation. 


138  '    THE  PRESBYTERIANS,  [Chap.  xii. 

On  the  new-school  side  there  was  a  decided  growth  of 
Presbyterian  feeHng,  which  drew  them  and  their  Congre- 
gationaHst  alhes  farther  apart.  They  were  becoming  dis- 
satisfied with  the  management  of  home  missions  and  the 
education  of  the  ministry  by  voluntary  societies  of  an 
interdenominational  character.  Church  boards,  with  the 
style  of  permanent  committees,  were  established  in  1852 
to  take  charge  of  their  home  missions  and  their  pubHca- 
tion  work.  Even  with  the  American  Board  methods  on 
the  foreign  field  there  was  a  growth  of  discontent.  The 
rules  prescribed  for  the  organization  of  the  native  converts 
into  churches  tended  to  give  those  churches  a  Congrega- 
tionaHst  character.  The  poHcy  of  Dr.  Rufus  Anderson, 
the  very  able  but  arbitrary  secretary  of  the  board,  in  forc- 
ing upon  the  missionaries  in  India  the  abandonment  of 
Dr.  Duff's  educational  methods  of  evangelization,  roused 
a  lively  resentment  both  in  India  and  at  home.  It  was 
felt  that  those  missions  were  detached  from  a  basis  com- 
mon to  all  Presbyterians  in  the  foreign  field,  and  in  har- 
mony with  the  principles  of  the  Presbyterian  polity.  R.  G. 
Wilder,  of  the  Kolapoor  mission,  renounced  his  connection 
with  the  American  Board  rather  than  become  Puritanized 
in  this  way,  and  was  supported  thereafter  by  Presbyteries 
and  churches  which  sympathized  with  his  action. 

Theologically  the  new-school  church  did  not  fulfill  any 
of  the  prognostications  of  its  unfriendly  critics.  It  did 
not  run  headlong  through  a  descending  career  of  Taylor- 
ism,  Arminianism,  and  Socinianism.  It  retracted  none  of 
the  positions  laid  down  in  its  Auburn  Declaration  of  1837. 
It  held  fast  to  the  assertion  that  Christ  died  for  all,  elect 
and  non-elect  alike.  It  denied  the  legal  equivalence  of 
our  Lord's  sufferings  to  the  pains  due  to  us  for  sin.  It 
refused  to  make  the  Cocceian  "  federal  headship  of  Adam  '* 
a  test  of  orthodoxy ;   and  while  it  traced  the  common  hu- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  I  39 

man  depravity  to  his  fall,  it  declined  to  call  this  sin  before 
it  resulted  in  sinful  acts.  It  asserted  the  natural  ability  of 
the  sinner  to  do  what  God's  law  requires  of  him,  seeing  in 
him  only  the  moral  inability  which  consists  of  voluntary 
inclination  to  evil. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  new  theological  atmosphere  had 
begun  to  pervade  the  church,  thanks  especially  to  the  in- 
fluence of  Professor  Henry  B.  Smith,  of  Union  Seminary, 
whom  Dr.  Archibald  Hodge  declared  to  be  the  greatest 
theologian  of  the  American  Presbyterian  Church. ^  Him- 
self a  New  Englander,  he  did  much  to  destroy  the  hegem- 
ony of  New  England  in  American  theology,  by  bringing 
it  into  relation  with  the  deeper  thought  of  the  conservative 
and  constructive  minds  of  Europe,  and  by  giving  this  a 
shape  fitted  to  American  needs.  A  somewhat  similar 
standpoint  was  reached  by  those  who,  like  Dr.  Jonathan 
F.  Stearns,  went  back  to  the  first  fount  of  Protestant  teach- 
ing in  the  writings  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  and  learned  to 
appreciate  the  worth  of  their  thought.^ 

At  the  same  time  the  old-school  church  was  unable  to 
maintain  the  rigidity  it  had  put  on  before  and  during  the 
division  of  the  church.  One  of  the  points  especially  at 
issue  in  the  controversies  of  that  time  had  been  the  nat- 

1  Dr.  J.  H.  Good,  of  the  (German)  Reformed  Church,  is  my  authority  for 
this.      He  had  it  from  Dr.  Hodge  himself. 

2  See  Dr.  Stearns's  sermon  on  Justification  by  Faith,  preached  before  the 
Synod  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  October  20,  1852,  and  published  by 
direction  of  the  Synod.  "  I  know  it  will  be  alleged  that  great  improvements 
have  been  made  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  why  not  in  theology  ?  It  has 
been  claimed  that  our  own  branch  of  the  church  deserves  to  be  held  in  honor, 
as  having  made  ^valuable  modifications  of  the  ancient  theology.  But,  my 
brethren,  I  must  confess,  I  stand  greatly  in  doubt  of  those  modifications. 
Some  of  them,  I  apprehend,  are  but  adaptations  or  adjustments  to  a  super- 
ficial style  of  thinking  among  us,  which  is  neither  sound  nor  destined  to 
stand  the  test  of  the  more  penetrating  style  of  thinking  which  a  better  age 
will  ere  long  bring  into  favor.  I  am  sure  we  have  no  modifications  sufficient 
to  erect  a  school  upon,  which  will  \\o\. peril  the  soundness  of  our  foundations." 
Dr.  Stearns  quotes  lidwards  and  Hopkins  with  great  respect,  and  confesses 
his  obligations  to  Archdeacon  Hare. 


140  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

ure  or  extent  of  the  subscription  required  to  the  doctrinal 
standards  of  the  church.  The  old-school  men  made  no 
discrimination  in  their  discussions  which  would  indicate 
any  latitude  of  dissent  from  even  less  important  state- 
ments. Dr.  Junkin,  in  prosecuting  Mr.  Barnes,  repudiated 
the  very  idea.  That  a  new-school  man  had  expressed  a 
conviction  that  differed  from  what  the  Confession  said 
was  enough  to  justify  his  condemnation  as  unfaithful  to 
his  ordination  vows.  In  the  Assembly  of  1858,  however, 
Dr.  Robert  J.  Breckinridge  introduced  a  motion  to  have 
the  Board  of  Publication  bring  out  a  commentary  on  the 
Scriptures,  which  should  conform  to  the  teachings  of  the 
Westminster  standards.  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  in  reviewing 
the  proposal,  wrote  of  the  Confession  of  Faith : 

"  We  could  not  hold  together  a  week  if  we  made  the 
adoption  of  all  its  propositions  a  condition  of  ministerial 
communion."  *' Who  is  to  tell  the  church's  sense  of  the 
Confession  ?  It  is  notorious  that  as  to  that  we  are  not 
agreed.  In  the  second  place,  even  as  to  the  points  in 
which  the  sense  of  the  Confession  is  plain,  there  is  want 
of  entire  concurrence  in  its  reception." 

In  justifying  this  statement  he  distinguished  three  modes 
of  subscription,  the  first  being  for  substance  of  doctrine, 
the  second  covering  every  statement,  and  the  third  in- 
cluding the  truths  held  (i)  by  all  Christians;  (2)  by  all 
Protestants ;  (3)  by  Calvinists  over  against  Lutherans, 
Arminians,  and  other  Protestants.  It  is  worth  while  to 
compare  with  this  Mr.  Barnes's  statement  of  1836:  "The 
system  of  truth  contained  in  the  Confession,  as  distin- 
guished from  all  other  systems — the  Socinian,  the  Pela- 
gian, the  Arian,  the  Arminian,  etc. — has  appeared  to  me 
to  be  the  true  system,  and,  without  hesitation  or  fluctua- 
tion, I  have  received  it." 

Next  to  doctrinal  conformity  to  the  Westminster  stand- 


ELDERSHIP  AND  BOARDS.  I4I 

ards,  in  the  controversies  of  1831-37,  the  greatest  stress 
had  been  laid  on  the  necessity  of  the  ruling  eldership  to 
the  right  constitution  of  a  congregation.  The  four  Synods 
had  been  exscinded  not  because  of  any  defect  in  the  stand- 
ing of  their  ministry,  but  because  they  admitted  to  seats 
in  Synod  and  Presbytery  men  who  had  never  been  or- 
dained to  the  eldership,  and  who  were  no  more  than  elected 
representatives  of  congregations.  A  prolonged  debate  in 
the  old-school  Assemblies  of  1842-44  brought  out  the  fact 
that  no  agreement  had  ever  been  reached  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  office,  its  relation  to  the  pastorate,  the  necessity  of 
the  presence  of  elders  in  the  courts  of  the  church,  and  the 
forms  by  which  they  should  be  set  apart  to  their  office. 
Dr.  Hodge,  over  against  his  colleague,  Dr.  Miller,  and  all 
the  Scottish  and  Irish  authorities,  supported  the  lower 
view  of  the  office,  denying  it  to  be  of  the  same  order  with 
the  pastorate,  defining  the  elder  as  a  lay  representative  of 
the  people,  and  refusing  him  ordination  by  laying  on  hands. 
In  that  view  the  committee-men  of  1831-37  could  hardly 
be  ruled  out  as  unfit  to  sit  in  Synod  or  Assembly. 

A  third  point  of  dissension  had  been  the  right  of  church 
boards  as  an  essential  feature  of  Presbyterian  polity,  over 
against  voluntary  societies.  But  in  the  Assemblies  of  1854 
and  i860.  Dr.  James  Henry  Thornwell,  of  the  Columbia 
(S.  C.)  Seminary,  attacked  the  boards,  with  equal  truth  of 
logic  and  of  history,  as  an  excrescence  upon  synodical 
government,  which  had  no  warrant  in  Scripture  or  the 
standards  of  the  church.  In  his  defense  of  the  boards 
Dr.  Hodge  took  much  lower  ground  than  had  been  held 
in  1837.  He  simply  Asserted  the  right  of  the  church  to 
govern  her  action  by  expediency  in  the  selection  or  or- 
ganization of  her  agencies. 

In  contrast  to  the  old-school  church,  the  new-school 
showed  its  Puritan  affinities  by  a  moral  rigorism  in  disci- 


142  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

pline,  and  an  exaction  of  theological  subscription  from  its 
entire  membership.  Elaborate  and  exacting  covenants 
and  confessions  were  prescribed  by  their  sessions  for  those 
who  were  admitted  to  communicant  membership.  Promis- 
cuous dancing,  card-playing,  and  other  "  worldly  amuse- 
ments "  were  sharply  dealt  with.  While  both  churches 
proclaimed  their  acceptance  of  revival  methods,  there  was 
some  foundation  for  the  claim  that  the  new-school  church 
was  preeminent  in  this  respect,  as  being  more  thoroughly 
pervaded  by  the  spirit  of  the  Awakening,  and  less  affected 
by  the  earlier  Presbyterian  tradition. 

Of  the  two  churches  it  was  the  old-school  which  made 
the  most  rapid  progress  during  the  period  of  their  separate 
existence.  It  was  slightly  in  the  majority  at  the  time  of 
the  separation,  and  decidedly  so  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
war.  This  was  due  in  part  to  the  greater  vigor  and  effi- 
ciency of  its  agencies  in  the  home  field,  and  th'eir  control 
by  the  church  itself.  Much  more  was  due  to  the  altered 
attitude  of  the  Congregationalists.  They  also  had  felt  the 
impulse  to  make  more  of  their  historic  past,  and  to  draw 
more  firmly  the  lines  of  denominational  distinction.  They 
were  dissatisfied  with  seeing  their  membership  outside  of 
New  England  absorbed  by  Presbyterian  churches,  and  their 
churches  by  Presbyteries.  In  the  new  and  growing  States 
of  the  Northwest  they  now  fought  to  their  own  hand,  build- 
ing up  State  Associations  of  their  own  churches,  and  in 
some  cases  reclaiming  from  the  new  school  those  who  be- 
longed to  them  by  birthright.  At  last,  in  1852,  a  national 
^convention  of  the  Congregationalist  churches  met  at  Al- 
s^'bany,  N.  Y.,  and  voted  the  discontinuance  of  the  Plan  of 
Union,  thus  drawing  the  denominational  line  firmly  and 
permanently.^     Thus  the  two  systems  drew  apart  ecclesi- 

1  Over   against  the   losses  to  Congregationalism  by  the  Plan  of  Union 
might  be  placed  the  losses  to  Presbyterianism  of  nearly  all  its  New  England 


BIBLICAL   SCHOLARSHIP.  1 43 

astically  just  at  the  time  when  their  theological  contact 
was  coming  to  an  end  through  the  development  of  a  more 
independent  activity  in  the  Presbyterian  churches. 

Until  after  the  division  of  1837,  American  Presbyteri- 
anism  made  no  important  addition  to  the  literature  of 
theology.  Able  preachers  there  were — Davies,  Tennant, 
Mason,  Griffin,  Kollock,  Larned,  John  Breckinridge,  and 
others — and  sound  practical  writers,  such  as  Dickinson, 
Green,  Miller,  and  the  Alexanders.  But  there  was  no 
such  succession  of  notable  names  as  New  England  con- 
tributed to  the  history  of  theology  from  the  time  of  Presi- 
dent Edwards — perhaps  I  should  say  of  Hooker  and  Shep- 
ard — onward. 

It  was  in  the  year  1841  that  Edward  Robinson,  of  the 
new  Union  Seminary,  published  his  "  Biblical  Researches," 
which,  as  Carl  Ritter  said,  '*  opened  the  second  great  era 
of  our  knowledge  of  the  Promised  Land."  It  constitutes, 
along  with  his  *'  Later  Researches  "  (1856)  and  his  ''  Phys- 
ical Geography  of  the  Holy  Land"  (1865),  the  greatest 
contribution  to  biblical  literature  America  has  made,  as 
Dr.  William  M.  Thomson's  "The  Land  and  the  Book" 
(1859  3-^^d  1882-86)  furnishes  the  best  popular  work  on 
the  same  subject.  Dr.  Robinson's  name  is  associated  with 
one  of  those  revisions  to  which  the  text  of  the  English 
Bible  has  been  frequently  subjected  since  King  James's 
time,  as  he  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Versions, 
supervising  the  work,  which  was  executed  by  Dr.  Jas. 
W.  McLane,  of  Brooklyn.  Without  touching  the  transla- 
tion itself,  this  eliminated  from  the  headings  of  the  chap- 
churches,  through  the  operation  of  a  legal  code  created  for  the  benefit  of 
Congregationalism.  As  the  laws  of  the  New  England  States  recognized  no 
higher  ecclesiastical  authority  than  that  of  the  local  congregation,  as  soon 
as  any  disagreement  with  Presbytery  occurred,  a  disaffected  majority  in  the 
congregation,  however  much  in  the  wrong,  could  vote  itself  from  under  that 
jurisdiction,  and  set  up  as  a  Congregationalist  parish,  perhaps  in  opposition 
to  all  or  a  majority  of  the  communicants. 


144  ^-^^  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

ters  expressions  which  amounted  to  a  comment  on  the 
text,  conformed  the  New  Testament  to  the  Old  in  the 
spelHng  of  proper  names,  and  got  rid  of  manifest  errors 
in  the  use  of  capitals,  italics,  and  punctuation  marks. 
SHght  as  was  the  revision  embodied  in  this  standard  text 
(1851),  it  was  attacked  as  a  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of 
the  society  by  Dr.  A.  C.  Coxe — now  Bishop  Coxe — in 
1856.  On  the  motion  of  Dr.  R.  J.  Breckinridge  the  old- 
school  Assembly  condemned  the  revision  and  directed  its 
Board  of  Publication  to  print  a  Bible  with  the  unrevised 
text  of  161 1.  By  this  action  the  Bible  Society  was  obliged 
to  return  to  the  old  text.^ 

On  the  old-school  side  biblical  scholarship  was  finely 
represented  by  Professor  Addison  Alexander,  of  Princeton 
— a  man  of  sound  judgment  and  remarkable  openness  to 
the  results  of  modern  scholarship.  The  notes  of  George 
Bush  on  the  Old  Testament — written  before  he  became  a 
Swedenborgian — and  of  Melanchthon  W.  Jacobus  on  the 
New,  like  those  of  Mr.  Barnes,  were  for  popular  rather 
than  scholarly  readers. 

In  dogmatic  theology  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  exerted  the 
greatest  influence,  indoctrinating  several  generations  into 
the  "Princeton  theology."  The  graciousness  of  his  per- 
sonal influence  compensated  the  deficiencies  of  his  histor- 
ical training  and  the  lack  of  coherence  at  times  in  his  log- 
ical demonstrations.  His  commentaries  may  be  regarded 
as  subsidiary  to  his  dogmatics,  which  as  yet  reached  the 

1  In  this  discussion,  and  those  over  the  radical  Revision  of  later  days, 
great  stress  is  laid  upon  the  phrase  "  Authorized  Version."  By  whom  was  it 
authorized  ?  Not  by  King  James,  nor  by  the  convocation  or  episcopate  of  the 
Church  of  England ;  not  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  which  authorized  the  Genevan 
version,  and  never  any  other.  In  Presbyterian  law  the  version  of  161 1  is  an 
unwarranted  innovation,  for  which  nothing  but  prescription  and  acquiescence 
can  be  pleaded.  But  the  old-school  church,  in  the  case  of  the  Plan  of  Union, 
ruled  that  prescription  and  acquiescence  imparted  no  validity  to  the  act  of  the 
Assembly  of  1801,  since  that  act  was  ultra  vires.  Much  less  can  they  serve  as 
an  authorization  in  the  absence  of  any  formal  act. 


CHURCH  HISTORY. 


4i 


public  only  through  the  "  Princeton  Review."  In  this  he 
carried  on  a  vigorous  polemic  with  Professor  Edwards  A. 
Park,  of  Andover.  Of  Professor  H.  B.  Smith's  work  at 
Union  I  have  spoken  already.  A  worthy  third  was  Pro- 
fessor James  H.  Thornwell,  of  Columbia  (S.  C.)  Seminary, 
who  combined  with  the  glowing  eloquence  of  a  Southern 
orator  a  strength  of  reasoning  second  to  none  of  his  day. 
Dr.  Samuel  J.  Baird,  in  "The  Elohim  Revealed"  (i860), 
set  forth  the  older  realistic  Calvinism,  in  contrast  to  both 
Princeton  and  the  new  school.  Dr.  Robert  J.  Breckin- 
ridge in  his  *'  Knowledge  of  God,  Objectively  and  Sub- 
jectively Considered"  (1857-59),  presents  a  philosophical 
theology  of  the  most  decided  old-school  orthodoxy,  but 
without  marked  originality. 

In  the  field  of  church  history  Dr.  Schaff,  then  in  the 
German  Reformed  Church,  was  breaking  new  ground  in 
the  face  of  much  ultra- Protestant  criticism  and  opposition. 
Presbyterians  were  attempting  little,  having  hardly  awak- 
ened to  the  importance  of  the  subject.  Some  biographies, 
such  as  that  of  Dr.  Rogers  by  Dr.  Miller,  and  autobiogra- 
phies, like  those  of  Addison  Alexander,  Thomas  Cleland, 
and  Ashbel  Green,  constituted  valuable  contributions  to 
American  church  history.  But  the  plan  of  the  General 
Assembly  to  secure  and  publish  a  history  of  each  of  its 
Synods  and  Presbyteries  had  fallen  through,  although  some 
of  these  were  actually  prepared.  Most  important  were 
Dr.  William  B.  Sprague's  '*  Annals  of  the  American  Pul- 
pit "  (9  vols.,  1857-69),  which  lay  the  church  historians 
of  America  under  inestimable  obligations.  Dr.  Robert 
Baird's  "Religion  in  America"  (1843-44  and  1856),  al- 
though prepared  with  a  view  to  European  readers,  was  a 
really  excellent  account,  historical  and  statistical,  of  the 
American  churches.  The  works  of  Dr.  Hodge  (1839-40), 
Dr.  William  Hill  (1839),  and  Mr.  Webster  (185^8),  Dr.  Archi- 


146  THE  rRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

bald  Alexander's"  Log  College"  (1845),  Dr.  William  Henry 
Foote's  "  Sketches  of  North  Carolina  and  of  Virginia"  (3 
vols.,  1846-55),  and  Dr.  Davidson's  "  History  of  the  Church 
in  Kentucky"  (1847)  ^^"^  ''^^  books  of  lasting  importance. 

In  the  field  of  practical  theology  the  number  of  writers 
was  very  great,  but  not  so  that  of  those  whose  books  have 
achieved  a  permanent  place.  The  introspective  character 
imparted  especially  to  this  literature  by  the  Awakening 
makes  it  less  acceptable  to  our  own  generation.  The  best- 
known  books  were  David  Nelson's  "  Cause  and  Cure  of 
Infidelity  "  (1836) ;  Thomas  H.  Skinner's  "Aids  to  Preach- 
ing and  Hearing  "  (1839) ;  Dr.  Charles  Hodge's  "  The  Way 
of  Salvation"  (1841);   Ichabod  S.  Spencer's  "A  Pastor's 

■  Sketches"  (1850-53);  Dr.  James  W.  Alexander's  "Con- 
solation" (1852);  Dr.  Erskine  Mason's  "A  Pastor's  Leg- 
acy" (1853);  and  Albert  Barnes's  "The  Atonement" 
(1859).  In  the  adjacent  field  of  hymnody  the  beginning 
made  by  President  Davies  was  followed  up  by  Dr.  James 
W.  Alexander  in  his  fine  renderings  from  the  German  (col- 
lected, 1861) ;  by  Professor  Henry  Mills,  of  Auburn,  in  ren- 
dering from  both  Latin  (1840)  and  German  (1845  ^.nd  1856) ; 
and  by  Drs.  N.  S.  S.  Beman  and  Edwin  H.  Hatfield,  Rev. 
George  Duffield  and  Thomas  S.  Hastings,  with  original 

\hymns.  American  Presbyterians,  however,  as  hymn-writ- 
ers, were  and  are  both  less  notable  and  less  productive 
than  the  Congregationalists,  Episcopalians,  Baptists,  or 
Unitarians.  They  contributed  little  to  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  poetry  and  imaginative  prose  which  characterized 
the  national  life  at  this  time. 

The  smaller  Presbyterian  bodies  experienced  important 
changes  during  this  period.  There  was  the  usual  tale  of 
petty  strifes  and  divisions,  but,  along  with  these,  most  cheer- 
ing evidence  that  the  Spirit  of  wisdom,  unity,  and  a  sound 
mind  had  not  deserted  the  church.      In  1843  discontent 


REUNION  OF  SECEDERS.  1 47 

with  the  action  in  a  disciplinary  case  caused  a  short-lived 
secession  from  the  Associate  Synod,  which  called  itself 
the  "  Free  Presbytery  of  Miami,"  but  went  to  pieces  in 
two  years.  Longer  lixed  was  the  secession  of  1844  from 
the  Associate  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  which  took  the"" 
name  of  that  Presbytery,  but  was  popularly  known  as  the 
Websterite  party.  The  cause  of  the  division  was  partly 
the  refusal  of  the  Associate  Presbytery  and  Synod  to  con- 
demn that  true  saint,  Dr.  Thomas  P.  Cooper,  for  teaching 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  acts  immediately  in  regeneration,  and 
not  by  means  of  the  Word,  and  partly  dissatisfaction  with 
the  changes  in  the  Westminster  Confession  made  by  the 
Synod  in  1840.  This  new  body  was  dissolved  in  1858, 
some  of  its  ministers  returning  to  the  Seceders,  while  others 
went  to  the  Covenanters  (N.  S.).  The  Reformed  Dissent- 
ing Presbytery,  which  had  withdrawn  from  the  Associate 
Reformed  Synod  in  1801,  found  a  home  in  the  Associate 
Synod  in  1852.  The  Bullions  secession  of  1840  from  the 
Associate  Church  came  to  an  end  in  1854,  when  its  four 
Presbyteries,  with  over  twenty-five  hundred  communicants, 
returned  to  the  Associate  Synod.  The  death  of  Mr.  Lusk 
in  1845  dissolved  for  a  time  the  little  Reformed  Presby- 
tery of  North  America,  as  it  left  David  Steele  alone  in  its 
ministry.      But  it  afterward  was  revived. 

The  most  important  and  happy  change  was  the  union 
of  the  great  body  of  the  American  Seceders  in  a  single 
General  Assembly.  As  early  as  1837  the  Reformed  Pres- 
byterians (N.  S.)  asked  for  conference  with  the  Associate 
and  Associate  Reformed  Churches  with  a  view  to  organic 
union.  This  wing  of  the  Covenanters,  having  abandoned 
''political  dissent,"  seemed  to  feel  that  the  precedent  of 
1782,  which  brought  the  Associate  Reformed  Church  into 
existence,  might  well  be  followed.  The  Associate  Re- 
formed Church,  however,  like  the  Presbyterian  Church, 


148  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

had  altered  the  statements  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  as 
regards  the  functions  of  the  civil  magistracy,  and  it  now- 
refused  to  go  back  to  the  very  strong  statements  of  the 
Westminster  divines  as  to  the  power  of  civil  rulers  for  the 
reformation  of  the  church,  the  maintenance  of  sound  doc- 
trine, and  the  punishment  of  heresy.  The  other  two 
churches  had  not  made  the  change,  nor  could  the  Cove- 
nanters (N.  S.)  be  induced  to  do  so.  The  Associate  Synod 
in  1840  agreed  to  the  alteration,  and  by  1844  a  plan  for  a 
United  Presbyterian  Church  was  in  readiness  for  adoption. 
It  was  not  found  acceptable,  yet  the  conferences  continued 
until  1849.  Even  after  they  ceased  the  two  Seceder 
churches  continued  correspondence  on  the  subject,  and  in 
1857  the  Associate  Synod  proposed  a  basis  of  union  which 
was  adopted  by  the  other  Synod.  This  provided  for  a  com- 
mon modification  of  the  Confession  and  a  "  judicial  testi- 
mony "  against  prevalent  errors,  including  slave-holding, 
oath-bound  secret  societies,  open  communion,  and  hymn- 
singing.  It  was  approved  by  the  Presbyteries  of  both, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Associate  Presbytery  of  north- 
ern Indiana.  Thus  was  formed  the  United  Presbyterian 
^Church  of  North  America.  A  small  minority  of  the  As- 
sociate Synod  entered  protest,  declined  the  union,  and, 
later  in  the  same  year,  reorganized  the  Associate  Synod. 
Similarly  a  small  minority  of  the  Associate  Reformed  Synod 
refused  to  enter  the  union,  and  organized  the  Associate 
Reformed  Synod  of  New  York,  with  two  Presbyteries  and 
sixteen  ministers. 

During  the  negotiations  with  the  Seceders  a  strong  de- 
sire for  organic  union  with  them  was  developed  in  the 
Covenanter  Church,  which  had  taken  the  first  step.  The 
approach  of  the  union  of  1858  awakened  the  hope  that 
all  three  churches  would  be  included.  A  conference  was 
held  at  Chambersburg^  before  the  meeting  of  the  General 


RIGIDITY  RELAXED.  1 49 

Synod,  at  which  tlie  leading  men  resolved  against  union. 
As  one  of  them  expressed  it,  the}-  resolved  that  "  the  Re- 
formed Presbyterian  Church  should  march  into  the  millen- 
nium with  banners  displayed."  This  decision  contributed 
to  the  subsequent  disorganization  of  the  body. 

Among  these  smaller  bodies,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Reformed  Presbytery,  there  was  a  gradual  and  partial  re- 
laxation of  the  disciplinary  rigidity  of  earlier  times.  The 
rule  against  "  occasional  hearing  "  was  generally  abandoned 
among  the  Seceders,  and  plays  no  part  in  the   union  of 

1858  ;  and  it  disappeared  also  among  the  (N.  S.)  Covenant- 
ers. The  stricter  Covenanters,  now  known  as  those  of  the 
Synod  in  contrast  to  the  General  Synod,  found  it  hard  to 
maintain  the  rule  in  the  cities.     Thus  in  Philadelphia  in 

1859  young  people  of  their  churches  would  go  to  hear 
Mr.  Grattan  Guinness  preach.  They  submitted  passively 
to  the  discipline  inflicted  by  the  sessions,  and  then  went 
again.  Discontent  also  was  shown  with  the  rule  forbid- 
ding funeral  services. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE    WAR    FOR    THE    UNION    AND    TWO    SECESSIONS, 
1861-70. 

This  decade,  1861-70,  was  as  memorable  In  the  history 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  in  that  of  the  nation.  It 
opened  with  a  division  and  closed  with  a  reunion  which 
constitute  the  last  notable  changes  in  the  contour  of 
American  Presbyterianism. 

When  the  old-school  Assembly  met  in  Philadelphia  in 
May,  1 86 1,  eight  of  the  Southern  States  had  declared  their 
severance  from  the  federal  Union,  and  the  war  between 
their  Confederate  government  and  that  of  the  nation  had 
been  in  progress  for  about  a  month,  though  chiefly  in  the 
way  of  preparation  for  active  hostilities.  No  one,  who  did 
not  live  through  it,  could  realize  the  swift  change  from 
uncertainty  and  irresolution  to  enthusiastic  decision  which 
had  passed  over  the  country  in  a  few  days.  After  the 
first  shot  fired  on  the  national  flag,  men  had  looked  into 
each  other's  eyes  to  find  reflected  there  a  passion  of  patri- 
otism of  which  they  had  not  thought  themselves  capable. 
This  united  all  parties  for  the  time,  and  the  least  military 
of  peoples  was  rapidly  converting  itself  into  an  army. 

Naturally  this  atmosphere  could  not  be  excluded  from 
the  ecclesiastical  assemblages  of  that  and  the  following 
years.  Even  the  Peace  Society  had  to  pronounce  for 
"  vigorous  police  measures  "  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
national    authority.      Especially   those   bodies  which    had 

150 


THE  ASSEMBLY  OF  18G1.  151 

held  an  ambiguous  position  in  relation  to  the  South  were 
expected  to  show  on  which  side  they  stood,  just  as  the 
mobs  who  swept  the  streets  of  the  great  cities  after  Fort 
Sumter  was  fired  on  made  special  demand  for  the  hoisting  of 
the  flag  over  churches  and  hotels  which  had  been  believed 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  seceding  States.  The  old- 
school  Assembly,  from  its  large  affiliations  with  the  South, 
much  more  than  from  its  utterances  with  regard  to  slavery 
— as  that,  in  the  North,  was  not  yet  an  issue  of  the  struggle 
— was  among  the  bodies  which  were  expected  to  speak 
out  against  a  movement  the  American  people  regarded 
as  morally  wicked  no  less  than  politically  ruinous.  Mr. 
McCormick,  the  inventor  of  the  reaper  and  the  founder  of 
the  Northwestern  Seminary,  was  accustomed  to  speak  of 
the  old-school  church  and  the  Democratic  party  as  "  the 
two  hoops  which  held  the  Union  together."  The  saying 
reflected  the  popular  feeling  that  that  church  had  a  polit- 
ical importance,  and  the  new  administration  in  Washing- 
ton is  said  to  have  intimated  that  a  declaration  for  loyalty 
would  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  national  government, 
especially  in  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri.  It  was 
equally  certain  that  such  a  declaration  would  be  especially 
irritating  to  the  Confederate  authorities,  as  showing  that 
the  unexpected  enthusiasm  for  the  maintenance  of  the  na- 
tional unit}^  had  pervaded  even  the  bodies  least  liable  to 
be  actuated  by  any  slighj:  or  passing  emotion. 

The  border-State  Presbyteiies  were  fully  represented  in 
the  Assembly,  and  there  were  a  few  delegates,  also,  from 
the  States  which  had  declared  themselves  out  of  the  Union. 
These  were  men  like  Dr.  E.  Thompson  Baird,  of  Missis- 
sippi, who  held  to  the  hope  that  the  church  might  main- 
tain its  unity  in  spite  of  political  separation.  Many  in  the 
Northern  delegations  agreed  with  them  in  deprecating  all 
discussion  and  action  with  regard  to  the  political  situation. 


152  THE  PRESBYTERIANS,  [Chap.  xiii. 

These  made  a  strong  party,  yet  they  were  decidedly  in 
the  minority. 

The  first  note  was  struck  by  the  venerable  Dr.  Gardiner 
Spring,  for  more  than  half  a  century  the  pastor  of  the 
Brick  Church  in  New  York.  The  retiring  moderator,  Dr. 
Yeomans,  asked  him  to  offer  prayer  before  the  annual  ser- 
mon, and  the  old  man  poured  out  his  heart  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Union.  The  party  of  silence  scored  a  point 
in  the  selection  of  Dr.  John  C.  Backus,  of  Baltimore,  to  the 
moderatorship,  as  will  appear  in  the  contrast  between  the 
action  of  the  Assembly  and  the  report  of  its  committee. 
As  the  session  proceeded  it  was  seen  that  all  the  former 
leaders  of  the  body  were  following  the  policy  of  silence, 
and  a  number  of  the  less  prominent  men  invited  Dr.  Spring 
to  prepare  and  offer  a  resolution.  He  was  among  the 
most  conservative  men  in  the  church,  and  his  utterances 
on  the  slavery  question  mostly  had  been  in  the  shape  of 
denunciations  of  the  abolitionists.  He  had  united  with 
thirty-five  leading  ministers  of  his  own  way  of  thinking  in 
an  appeal  to  the  ministers  and  churches  of  the  South,  just 
after  South  Carolina  had  adopted  the  Act  of  Secession, 
assuring  them  of  fraternal  love  and  confidence,  and  invit- 
ing them  to  united  prayer  to  ''  avert  the  horrors  of  fratri- 
cidal war."  But  when  the  war  came,  after  he  had  heard 
a  Southern  Senator  declare  there  were  no  terms  on  which 
the  South  would  consent  to  stay  in  the  Union,  he  thought 
himself  obligated  by  his  duty  to  the  country  to  work  for 
its  preservation  from  destruction  by  the  hands  of  its  own 
children. 

It  certainly  was  not  with  the  intention  of  obtaining  ex- 
treme or  radical  action  that  the  majority  put  their  case 
into  Dr.  Spring's  hands.  Nor  was  his  proposal  offensive 
in  its  manner  or  extreme  in  its  matter.  On  the  sixth  day 
of  the  session,  after  repeated  failures  to  have  the  subject 


THE   SPRING   RESOLUTIONS. 


153 


referred  to  a  special  committee  to  prepare  a  deliverance, 
he  offered  a  preamble  and  Resolutions  providing  for  a  day 
of  fasting  and  prayer  that  God  might  "  turn  away  his  anger 
from  us  and  speedily  restore  to  us  the  blessings  of  an  hon- 
orable peace."  It  proceeded,  "in  the  spirit  of  Christian 
patriotism,"  to  '*  acknowledge  and  declare  our  obligations 
to  promote  and  perpetuate,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  the  integ- 
rity of  these  United  States,  and  to  strengthen,  uphold,  and 
encourage  the  Federal  Government  in  the  exercise  of  all 
its  functions  under  our  noble  Constitution ;  and  to  this 
Constitution,  in  all  its  provisions,  requirements,  and  prin- 
ciples, we  profess  our  unabated  loyalty."  *" 

The  source  from  which  the  proposal  came  added  so 
much  to  its  weight  that  the  advocates  of  silence  secured 
the  postponement  of  the  discussion  for  two  days.  These 
Dr.  Henry  A.  Boardman  and  others  employed  in  urging  Dr. 
Spring  to  withdraw  or  modify  the  paper,  but  without  effect. 
After  three  days  of  heated  debate,  the  paper,  with  two 
substitutes  for  it,  was  referred  to  a  committee  of  nine,  who 
reported — eight  to  one — for  the  policy  of  silence.  Dr. 
William  C.  Anderson,  of  San  Francisco,  who  constituted 
the  minority,  reported  back  Dr.  Spring's  Resolutions  with 
a  slight  modification ;  and  these,  after  renewed  debate, 
were  adopted  finally  by  a  vote  of  156  to  66,  with  a  rider 
offered  by  Dr.  Jonathan  Edwards,  of  Philadelphia.  This 
declared  that  by  the  term  "  Federal  Government  "  nothing 
else  was  meant  than  '*  the  central  Administration,  which, 
being  at  any  time  appointed  and  inaugurated  according  to 
the  form  prescribed  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
is  the  visible  representative  of  our  national  existence." 

To  outsiders  in  that  heated  time  it  seemed  as  though 
the  Assembly  had  ''roared  as  gently  as  a  sucking  dove." 
But  the  dignified,  deliberate  terms  of  the  Resolutions  ex- 
pressed exactly  what  the  best  mind  of  the  church  was. 


154  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

without  a  word  of  bitterness  or  denunciation  toward  the 
South,  and  therefore  they  had  the  greater  effect  in  helping 
to  draw  the  hne  of  secession  below,  and  not  above,  the 
border  States.  To  the  minority,  however,  the  action  was 
as  unacceptable  as  possible.  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  a  Repub- 
lican in  politics  from  the  formation  of  that  party  until  his 
death,  presented  a  Protest,  which  was  signed  by  himself 
and  fifty-seven  others,  including  the  moderators  of  that 
and  the  previous  Assemblies,  and  the  sixteen  delegates  in 
attendance  from  the  seceded  States.  It  admits,  of  course, 
the  right  of  the  Assembly  to  enjoin  upon  the  ministers  and 
churches  the  duty  of  loyalty  and  subjection  to  the  powers 
that  be.  It  denies  its  right,  in  case  of  a  dispute,  to  de- 
cide as  to  which  or  what  authority  has  the  primary  claim 
to  allegiance,  and  it  asserts  that  the  General  Assembly  had 
made  allegiance  to  the  Union,  whatever  the  action  of  the 
State,  a  term  of  communion. 

Those  who  stood  by  the  Spring  Resolutions  had  the 
whole  history  of  the  church,  the  teaching  of  the  Confes- 
sion, and  the  authority  of  God's  Word  on  their  side.  The 
Protest  impHed  a  condemnation  of  Knox  and  of  Calvin,  of 
the  Golden  Assembly  of  1638,  of  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly of  Divines,  of  the  Revolution  Assembly  of  1690,  and 
of  the  American  Synods  of  1772-82.  It  is  impossible  to 
see  how  Presbyterianism  could  have  perpetuated  its  exist- 
ence on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic  if  the  Kirk  had  acted 
on  the  theories  of  the  Hodge  Protest,  and  had  renounced 
her  claim  to  "  treat  in  an  ecclesiastical  way  of  greatest  and 
smallest  matters,  from  the  king's  throne,  that  should  be 
established  in  righteousness,  to  the  merchant's  balance, 
that  should  be  used  in  faithfulness."  The  document  was 
another  index  of  the  extent  to  which  the  pietism  of  the 
Awakening  had  displaced  the  theocratic  conception  which 
lies  so  near  the  core  of  historic  Presbyterianism. 


RELIGION  AND  POLITICS,  I  55 

That  good  men  in  the  South  honestly  beHeved  it  their 
duty  to  stand  by  their  State  against  the  nation  was  no 
more  bar  to  a  deHverance  upon  the  matter  than  was  the 
fact  that  good  men  had  held  it  their  duty  to  stand  by  the 
Stuart  kings  in  the  exercise  of  a  brutal  Erastian  tyranny, 
or  by  the  Pretender  in  his  assertion  of  his  right  to  the  Brit- 
ish throne,  or  by  the  British  government  in  its  claim  to 
deal  with  the  American  colonies  in  a  fashion  which  would 
have  extinguished  both  civil  and  religious  liberty.  The 
most  conscientious  conviction  may  be  but  the  conviction 
of  an  unenlightened  conscience,  and  while  the  church  may 
not  **  intermeddle  with  civil  affairs  which  concern  the  com- 
monwealth," the  Confession  makes  an  exception  :  "  By  way 
of  advice  for  the  satisfaction  of  conscience." 

That  there  was  need  of  such  advice  in  the  present  case 
shows  how  weakening,  on  the  social  side,  had  been  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Awakening.  It  had  made  even  good  men 
tolerant  of  the  political  atheism  of  the  Rousseau  and  Jeffer- 
son school,  which  saw  in  a  nation  nothing  higher  thai!  a 
human  contrivance  for  secular  ends,  to  be  formed  on  such 
terms,  and  dissolved  in  such  emergencies,  as  its  constitu- 
ent elements  pleased.  To  those  who  see  in  God  the  giver 
of  national  life  and  order,  the  attempt  to  destroy  these,  on 
whatever  pretense,  must  seem  criminal.  The  readiness, 
however,  of  later  Presbyterians  to  make  almost  any  differ- 
ence of  opinion  an  excuse  for  ecclesiastical  separation  had 
tended  so  much  to  lower  the  feeling  of  the  sacredness  of 
church  unity,  that  it  could  not  but  react  upon  our  political 
life  in  an  unhappy  way. 

During  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1 86 1  the  Southern 
Presbyteries  of  the  old-school  church  generally  adopted 
resolutions  renouncing  the  authority  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly. In  pursuance  of  an  invitation  issued  by  a  conven- 
tion held  at  Atlanta,  Ga.,  in  August,  delegates  from  ten 


156  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  "  [Chap.  xiii. 

Synods,  including  forty-seven  Presbyteries,  met  in  Au- 
gusta, Ga.,  and  constituted  the  first  General  Assembly  of 
*'  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Confederate  States  of 
America."  It  chose  as  moderator  Dr.  Benjamin  M.  Palmer, 
whose  Fast-day  Sermon  of  i860  had  placed  him  in  the 
front  rank  of  the  advocates  of  secession,  and  of  whom 
a  Confederate  general  said  that  *'  his  services  were  worth 
more  to  the  cause  than  a  soldiery  of  ten  thousand  men." 

It  has  been  asserted,  and  no  doubt  sincerely,  that  oppo- 
sition to  the  Spring  Resolutions,  on  the  grounds  presented 
in  Dr.  Hodge's  Protest,  was  the  efficient  cause  of  this  sep- 
aration. But  the  whole  manner,  scope,  and  circumstances 
of  the  transaction  show  that  its  causes  were  purely  polit- 
ical. It  was  a  secession  from  the  minority  as  well  as  the 
majority  of  the  General  Assembly — from  Drs.  Hodge, 
Backus,  and  Yeomans,  no  less  than  from  Drs.  Spring, 
Anderson,  and  Edwards.  No  offer  of  cooperation  and 
union  was  held  out  to  those  who  had  protested  against 
the  Spring  Resolutions.  On  the  contrary,  the  title  taken 
by  the  new  body  ruled  them  out  of  its  communion  with 
the  utmost  distinctness.  That  title  crystalHzed  the  new 
church  along  the  Hnes  of  a  political  division,  not  those  of 
ecclesiastical  principle.  It  excluded  even  the  churches 
and  Presbyteries  of  the  border  States,  so  long  as  it  re- 
mained the  style  of  the  Southern  church.  When  the 
United  Synod  cast  in  its  lot  with  that  church,  its  Presby- 
tery of  Lexington,  Ky.,  was  left  out  necessarily,  and 
sought  readmission  to  the  new-school  Assembly. 

Neither  did  the  Spring  Resolutions  afford  any  reasonable 
ground  for  separation.  They  enunciated  no  new  doctrine 
and  subverted  no  principle  of  Presbyterian  order.  They 
merely  passed  upon  a  question  of  social  duty  according  to 
the  best  light  the  Assembly  had,  whether  right  or  wrong ; 
and  such  a  deliverance  in  tJiesi  has  no  binding  force  upon 


THE    CONFEDERATE    CHURCH.  157 

the  consciences  of  either  members  or  judicatories  of  the 
church.  Dr.  Hodge  and  his  co-protesters,  indeed,  declared 
that  they  had  erected  a  new  term  of  communion,  and  Dr. 
Palmer  denounced  them  as  "virtually  exscinding"  the 
Southern  churches ;  but  both  wrote  unadvisedly  and  under 
the  influence  of  excitement. 

If  the  policy  of  silence  had  been  followed  by  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  the  question  of  a  separation  could  have 
been  put  off  only  for  a  brief  time.  Political  separation 
always  has  carried  ecclesiastical  division  with  it  in  the 
sphere  of  Protestantism.  Even  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  in  which  the  policy  of  silence  was  systematized, 
went  apart  while  the  war  lasted.  As  soon  as  the  seceding 
States  satisfied  themselves  that  their  experiment  was  a 
success  and  that  their  Confederacy  was  to  last,  they  would 
have  adjusted  their  ecclesiastical  arrangements  to  the  new 
lines.  That  assurance  they  reached  so  early  that  it  is 
doubtful  if  the  Spring  Resolutions  even  hastened  the  action 
of  the  Southern  Presbyterians.  This  first  Southern  Assem- 
bly itself  said :  '*  It  is  desirable  that  each  nation  should 
contain  a  separate  and  independent  church,  and  the  Pres- 
byteries of  the  Confederate  States  need  no  apology  for 
bowing  to  the  decree  of  Providence,  which,  in  withdrawing 
their  country  from  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
has,  at  the  same  time,  determined  that  they  should  with- 
draw Trom  the   church  of  their  fathers."  ^ 

1  From  the  very  frank  and  able  "  Address  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  to  all  the  Churches  of 
Jesus  Christ  throughout  the  Earth,  unanimously  adopted  at  their  sessions  in 
Augusta,  Ga.,  December,  1861."  It  was  prepared  by  Dr.  Thornwell,  and 
is  reprinted  in  his  works.      It  also  says  : 

"  We  frankly  admit  that  the  mere  unconstitutionality  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  last  Assembly  is  not,  in  itself  considered,  a  sufficient  ground  of  separa- 
tion. It  is  the  consequences  of  these  proceedings  which  make  them  so 
oflensive.  It  is  the  door  they  open  for  the  introduction  of  the  worst  pas- 
sions of  human  nature  into  the  deliberations  of  church  courts." 

"  The  Northern  section  of  the  church  stands  in  the  awkward  predicament 


158  THE  PRESBYTERIANS,  [Chap.  xiii. 

It  was  the  collapse  of  the  Confederate  States  which 
gave  those  Resolutions  permanent  significance  as  a  reason 
for  maintaining  the  separation  of  1861  within  the  bounds 
of  the  same  nation.  But  for  that  they  would  now  have  lit- 
tle more  than  an  antiquarian  interest,  and  for  that  purpose 
they  are  badly  overworked.  That  the  Southern  church 
did  not  plant  itself  upon  the  ground  taken  in  the  Hodge 
Protest  was  shown  by  deliverances,  far  more  explicit  than 
the  Spring  Resolutions,  in  frankest  support  of  the  Confed- 
erate States.  Thus,  to  quote  one  of  several,  the  South- 
ern Assembly  of  1862,  in  its  ''Narrative  of  the  State  of 
Religion,"  says:  **  All  the  Presbyteries  which  have  re- 
ported dwell  upon  the  absorbing  topic  of  the  war  in  which 
we  are  now  engaged.  .  .  .  All  the  Presbyterial  narratives, 
without  exception,  mention  the  fact  that  their  congregations 
have  evinced  the  most  cordial  sympathy  with  the  people 
of  the  Confederate  States  in  their  efforts  to  maintain  their 
cherished  rights  and  institutions  against  the  despotic  power 
which  is  attempting  to  crush  them,"  The  Assembly  of 
1864,  besides  adopting  a  report  which  contained  an  un- 
mistakable condemnation  of  protection  and  approval  of  free 
trade,  in  its  ''Narrative  of  the  State  of  Religion  "  says: 
"  The  long-continued  agitations  of  our  adversaries  have 
wrought  within  us  a  deeper  conviction  of  th£  divine  ap- 
pointment of  domestic  servitude,  and  have  led  to  a  clearer 
comprehension  of  the  duties  we  owe  to  the  Africa^i  race. 
We  hesitate  not  to  affirm  that  it  is  the  peculiar  mission  of 

of  maintaining,  in  one  breath,  that  slavery  is  an  evil  which  ought  to  be 
abolished,  and  of  asserting,  in  the  next,  that  it  is  not  a  sin  to  be  visited  by 
exclusion  from  communion  of  the  saints.  The  consequence  is  that  it  plays 
partly  into  the  hands  of  the  abolitionists  and  partly  into  the  hands  of  the 
slave-holders,  and  weakens  its  influence  with  both.  It  is  a  prevaricating 
v/itness  whom  neither  party  will  trust." 

"  In  our  ecclesiastical  capacity  we  are  neither  the  friends  nor  the  foes  of 
slavery ;  that  is  to  say,  we  have  no  commission  either  to  propagate  or  to 
al)olish  it." 


REUNION  IN   THE   SOUTH.  1 59 

the  Southern  church  to  conserve  the  institution  of  slavery, 
and  to  make  it  a  blessing  to  both  master  and  slave." 

The  new  church  at  once  adopted  a  vigorous  home  and 
foreign  missionary  and  educational  policy.  It  took  charge 
of  the  missionary  work  among  those  tribes  in  the  Indian 
Territory  whom  General  Albert  Pike  had  persuaded  to 
cast  in  their  lot  with  the  Confederacy,  through  their  sym- 
pathy with  it  as  slave-holders.  Following  out  the  policy 
defended  by  Dr.  Thornwell  before  the  division,  it  dispensed 
with  "  boards,"  and  placed  its  work  in  charge  of  executive 
committees  invested  with  less  discretionary  power  and  more 
directly  responsible  to  the  synodical  bodies  which  consti- 
tute Presbyterian  government. 

In  1863  it  received  the  Independent  Presbyterian 
Church,  a  body  of  thirteen  churches  and  four  ministers,  all 
in  South  Carolina.  This  had  been  formed  in  181 1  by  Wil- 
liam C.  Davis  and  his  followers.  He  had  been  deposed 
for  the  heresies  contained  in  his  book,  **  The  Gospel  Plan  " 
(1809),  by  the  Presbytery  of  Orange  in  181 1  ;  and  as  both 
Synod  and  Assembly  had  already  condemned  the  teach- 
ings of  his  book,  he  withdrew  without  appeal.  In  1833 
the  General  Assembly  had  censured  those  in  its  own  ju- 
risdiction who  held  communion  with  him,  as  he  was  a  de- 
posed minister.  On  their  profession  of  their  acceptance 
of  the  Confession,  the  Southern  Assembly  admitted  them 
without  reordination  of  their  ministers. 

The  next  year  a  union  was  formed  with  the  United 
Synod  (N.  S.).  This  was  on  the  basis  of  a  doctrinal  state- 
ment which  covered  the  grounds  of  difference  of  1837  ;  and 
the  new-school  men  of  the  South,  by  accepting  it,  showed 
that  either  they  had  shifted  their  ground  in  the  meanwhile, 
or  else  that  they  never  were  in  agreement  with  those  who 
drafted  the  Auburn  Declaration.  This,  however,  is  denied 
by  some  of  them  to  this  day. 


l6o  THE  PRESBYTERIANS,  [Chap.  xiu. 

Presbyterians  of  both  Scotch-Irish  and  New  England 
stock  had  their  full  share  in  the  burdens  and  achievements 
of  the  war  on  both  sides.  The  first  blood  shed  was  that  of 
Surgeon  (afterward  General)  Crawford,  who  was  wounded 
in  the  face  during  the  bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter. 
He  was  a  son  of  Dr.  S.  Wylie  Crawford,  of  the  Covenanter 
(N.  S.)  Church.  In  the  South,  the  men  of  the  Scotch- 
Irish  race  occupied  the  Appalachian  chain  and  its  upland 
valleys,  where  the  plantation  was  unknown  and  slave-hold- 
ers rare.  They  were  therefore  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
policy  of  their  wealthier  neighbors,  and  in  general  attached 
strongly  to  the  Union.  In  West  Virginia  they  cut  loose 
from  the  Confederacy,  and  reentered  the  Union  as  a  new 
State.  In  western  North  Carolina,  eastern  Tennessee,  and 
adjacent  parts  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama 
they  offered  resistance  to  the  measures. taken  to  draft  them 
into  the  Confederate  army.  Hence  it  was  that,  next  to 
the  opening  of  the  Mississippi,  the  seizure  of  Chattanooga 
in  eastern  Tennessee  was  the  chief  strategic  point  of  the 
war,  as  it  gave  the  national  army  a  basis  of  operations 
among  a  friendly  people,  from  which  the  line  of  the  coast 
States  could  be  cut  in  any  direction.  But,  for  the  reasons 
already  stated  (pp.  69-71),  only  a  fraction  of  this  Scotch- 
Irish  population  had  remained  in  the  Presbyterian  com- 
munion. 

Like  almost  all  wars,  that  for  the  Union  brought  with 
it  elements  of  demoralization  and  spiritual  decline.  The 
great  cities  especially  suffered  in  the  injury  to  public  order 
which  attends  the  preparation  and  conduct  of  hostilities. 
The  churches  in  many  cases  suffered  in  the  diversion  of 
their  attention  and  energies  to  "  things  seen  and  tempo- 
ral "  ;  and  the  duties  of  loyalty  were  offen  preached  in  a 
way  which  lowered  the  tone  of  the  church,  while  it  alien- 
ated many  who  had  not  acquired  the  new  enthusiasm  for 


REVIVALS  IN   THE   ARMIES.  l6l 

the  Union,  and,  in  later  years,  that  for  the  suppression  of 
slavery.  In  a  host  of  cases  Presbyterian  churches  were 
divided  for  this  reason,  the  seceding  minority  commonly 
organizing  as  an  Episcopalian  congregation.  That  church, 
by  a  reverse  of  policy,  gained  more  members  in  the  War 
for  the  Union  than  it  had  lost  in  that  for  Independence. 

But  there  were  compensations.  There  was  a  distinct 
deepening  of  tone  in  the  public  utterances  of  the  time,  an 
ampler  and  more  sincere  recognition  of  the  authority  of 
God  as  the  Ruler  of  nations,  a  new  sense  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  public  order  and  unity  of  the  nation  as  the  gift 
of  God.  It  was  felt  that  war  itself  was  a  solemn  appeal 
to  the  divine  arbitration,  and  even  the  blasphemies  of 
General  Hooker  but  emphasized  for  thoughtful  soldiers 
the  solemn  lessons  of  the  hour  of  judgment  in  which  they 
stood. 

The  armies  themselves  were  in  many  cases  schools  of 
the  new  life  to  those  who  entered  them.  In  that  of  the 
Confederate  States  there  was  a  revival  in  1863-64,  which 
fairly  outran  the  power  of  the  chaplains  and  volunteer 
workers  to  deal  with  it.  In  the  army  of  the  United  States 
the  chaplains,  with  a  few  unworthy  exceptions,  were  picked 
men,  whose  labors  were  fruitful  of  good  both  while  the 
war  lasted  and  ever  since.  They  were  aided  by  the  labors 
of  the  Christian  Commission,  in  which  all  the  orthodox 
churches  cooperated  in  sending  preachers,  nurses,  supplies 
for  well  and  wounded,  libraries  and  religious  literature 
both  to  the  armies  in  action  and  to  the  winter-quarters  and 
hospitals.  The  soldiers  were  kept  in  touch  with  home  and 
under  home  influences,  and  were  encouraged  and  helped 
to  keep  up  correspondence  and  to  send  home  a  part  of 
their  pay.  This  kind  of  work  was  begun  by  John  Patter- 
son, a  Presbyterian  elder  of  Philadelphia,  by  George  S. 
Griffith,   of   the  German  Reformed  Church  in  Baltimore, 


1 62  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

and  by  Rev.  Benj.  W.  Chidlaw  in  the  West.  It  soon  crys- 
tallized into  a  national  organization,  called  into  existence 
by  the  national  convention  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations,  vi^hich  placed  George  Hay  Stuart,  who  com- 
bined practical  business  abilities  with  great  personal  enthu- 
siasm, at  the  head.  Of  the  Presbyterians  associated  with 
him.  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  Stephen  Colwell,WilHam  E.  Dodge, 
and  Joseph  Patterson  deserve  mention  here,  though  not 
more  notable  than  the  representatives  of  other  denomi- 
nations. 

While  the  New  Side  Covenanters  gave  a  leader  to  this 
work  of  Christian  benevolence,  the  Old  Side  found  it  hard 
to  maintain  the  attitude  of  "political  dissent"  in  circum- 
stances which  so  strongly  enlisted  their  sympathies  on  the 
side  of  the  nation.  No  American  church  was  more  pro- 
nounced in  its  abhorrence  of  slavery ;  none  cherished  so 
strong  a  sense  of  the  sacredness  of  national  life.  Their 
Synod  declared :  '*  It  is  seldom  in  the  history  of  war  that 
the  right  is  so  entirely  on  one  side,  and  wrong  on  the  other, 
as  in  the  present  case.  ...  In  this  great  struggle  for  the 
preservation  of  law  and  order  against  disloyalty  and  trea- 
son, we  may  readily  distinguish  between  the  welfare  of 
the  country  on  the  one  hand  and  the  sinful  character  of 
the  Constitution,  and  its  imperfect  administration,  on  the 
other,"  But  so  long  as  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Con- 
stitution was  imposed  upon  the  soldier,  they  could  but 
offer  prayers  and  sympathy,  while  the  fighting  instincts  of 
Drumclog  and  Pentland  Hills  were  hot  within  them.  The 
Synod  of  1863  made  a  proffer  to  the  government  of  a  form 
of  oath  pledging  the  recruit  to  be  "  faithful  to  the  United 
States"  and  yield  "all  due  obedience  to  military  orders." 
Against  this  ten  voted ;  and  two  entered  protest  againct 
approval  of  a  war  whose  "declared  purpose"  was  "the 
maintenance  and  defense  of   the  Constitution."     As  the 


THE   BORDER   STATES,  1 63 

oath  of  allegiance  ceased  to  be  required  of  the  soldiers, 
the  matter  was  dropped,  and  the  Synod's  approval  was 
rescinded.  Secretary  Stanton,  through  his  employment 
in  the  Pittsburg  lawsuit  of  1848  (p.  103),  understood  their 
difficulties,  and  did  all  in  his  power  to  facilitate  their 
serving  in  the  army. 

The  close  of  the  war  brought  with  it  the  necessity  for 
a  change  in  the  style  of  the  Southern  church,  which  now 
took  the  name  the  ''  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States."  It  had  suffered  heavily,  as  had  the  South,  from 
the  devastations  of  the  war,  and  the  loss  of  both  men  and 
means.  Churches,  in  some  cases,  had  broken  up,  never  to 
gather  again.  Wounds  and  the  diseases  of  camp  and 
march  had  thinned  out  its  membership.  Many  wealthy 
families  had  been  reduced  to  complete  poverty  by  the  loss 
of  their  slaves  and  other  property.  But,  like  the  South 
generally,  it  took  up  the  burdens  of  rebuilding  with  spirit 
and  energy. 

It  was  soon  to  be  reinforced  largely  by  accessions 
of  Presbyteries  and  churches  in  the  border  States,  who 
had  suffered  less,  or  not  at  all,  in  the  years  of  war.  The 
people  of  these  States,  so  far  as  slavery  was  concerned, 
generally  were  in  sympathy  with  the  South,  but  were 
opposed  to  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  as  that,  indeed, 
would  have  imperiled  their  interests  by  reopening  the  Afri- 
can slave-trade.  For  a  time  they  tried  to  maintain  a  neu- 
tral attitude,  but  ultimately  they  found  themselves  within 
the  national  military  lines.  After  the  war  had  ended  they 
fel^  ^"^mselves  aggrieved  by  the  abolition  of  slavery  through 
the  thirteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  which 
affected  only  them.  They  also  had  had  to  bear  a  large 
share  of  the  severely  repressive  measures  w^hich  the  ad- 
ministration had  thought  necessary  for  the  effective  con- 
duct of  the  war. 


1 64  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

Most  unfortunately,  some  of  these  measures  had  been  of 
a  character  which  involved  the  churches  both  needlessly 
and  wrongfully.  The  officers  commanding  the  military 
districts  undertook  to  suppress  anything  that  seemed  an 
ecclesiastical  expression  of  sympathy  with  the  Confederate 
cause,  and  that  often  with  more  vehemence  than  discretion. 

The  first  case  which  attracted  general  attention  was  that 
of  Dr.  S.  B.  McPheeters,  pastor  of  the  Pine  Street  Church 
in  St.  Louis.  He  had  twice  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  national  government,  and  had  abstained  strictly  from 
what  he  called  "  political  preaching  and  praying."  He 
had  defended  the  policy  of  silence  on  civil  questions  in 
the  Assembly  of  1862  against  Dr.  Robert  J.  Breckinridge, 
and  he  practiced  it  for  himself.  He  had  people  of  both 
ways  of  thinking  in  his  congregation,  and  he  labored  to 
give  offense  to  neither. 

Unfortunately,  one  of  his  congregation  presented  a  child 
for  baptism,  and  gave  the  name  of  a  Confederate  com- 
mander, who  was  especially  detested  by  the  Unionists  of 
the  State  on  account  of  his  raids  across  its  southern  bor- 
der. Dr.  McPheeters,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  church, 
had  no  choice  but  to  give  the  child  that  name,  as  he  also 
must  have  done  if  the  name  specified  to  him  had  been 
Abraham  Lincoln  or  Charles  Sumner.  The  transaction, 
however,  was  like  a  spark  in  a  powder-magazine,  as  things 
then  stood.  Some  of  the  Unionists  of  the  congregation 
made  their  appeal  to  the  provost-marshal  general  of  the 
Department  of  the  Missouri,  alleging  against  their  pas- 
tor no  more  than  this  act,  and  that  he  prayed  for  **  kings 
and  all  in  authority,"  and  not  specifically  for  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  Thereupon  General  F.  A. 
Dick  issued  an  order  (December  19,  1862)  banishing  Dr. 
McPheeters  and  his  wife  out  of  the  military  district  on 
the  plea  of  "  unmistakable  evidence  of  sympathy  with  the 


"RUNNING    THE   CHURCHES.''  1 65 

Rebellion,"  forbidding  his  discharge  of  ministerial  func- 
tions in  the  meantime,  and  requiring  that  they  leave  the 
State  in  ten  days,  and  "  take  up  their  residence  within  the 
free  States  north  of  Indianapolis  and  west  of  Pittsburg." 
At  the  same  time  the  "  edifice,  books,  and  papers  "  of  the 
Pine  Street  Church  were  handed  over  to  '*  the  control  of 
three  loyal  members,  .  .  .  who  shall  see  that  its  pulpit  be 
filled  by  a  loyal  minister  of  the  gospel." 

Dr.  McPheeters,  within  a  week  after,  went  to  Washington 
and  laid  the  case  before  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  President  at  once 
ordered  a  modification  by  which  Dr.  McPheeters  and  his 
family  were  allowed  to  continue  in  Missouri,  and  a  few 
days  later  (January  2,  1863)  he  wrote  to  General  Curtis, 
commanding  in  the  district,  that  "  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment must  not,  as  by  this  order,"  relating  to  Dr.  Mc- 
Pheeters, **  undertake  to  run  the  churches.  When  an  in- 
dividual in  the  church  or  out  of  it  becomes  dangerous  to 
the  public  interest  he  must  be  checked ;  but  the  churches, 
as  such,  must  take  care  of  themselves.  It  will  not  do  for 
the  United  States  to  appoint  trustees,  supervisors,  or  other 
agents  for  the  churches."  This  letter  he  meant  as  dispos- 
ing of  the  case  in  the  sense  Dr.  McPheeters  desired,  and 
in  principle  it  did  so.  But  the  military  authorities  of  the 
district  seem  to  have  resolved  that  nothing  less  than  a 
specific  and  categorical  order,  naming  him  by  name,  was 
obligatory  upon  them.  He  remained  under  their  ban,  for- 
bidden to  attend  his  Presbytery  or  Synod,  shut  out  of  his 
pulpit,  and  refused  leave  even  to  officiate  at  a  marriage  or 
a  funeral,  until  the  President  wrote  a  second  letter,  nearly 
a  year  later  (December  22,  1863),  reinforcing  the  first. 
"  I  have  never,"  he  said,  ''interfered,  or  thought  of  inter- 
fering, as  to  who  shall  or  shall  not  preach  in  any  church ; 
nor  have  I  knowingly  or  believingly  tolerated  any  one  else 
so  to  interfere  by  my  authority." 


l66  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

Nearly  four  months  after  this,  however,  General  Rose- 
crans,  the  new  commander  of  the  district,  issued  an  order 
(March  8,  1864)  requiring  every  ecclesiastical  body  with- 
in the  district  to  ascertain  whether  any  of  their  number 
had  not  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  within  a  time  speci- 
fied, and  to  exclude  those  who  had  not,  under  penalties  of 
martial  law.  It  was  believed,  on  what  evidence  I  cannot 
learn,  that  this  action  had  been  instigated  by  ministers  and 
elders  of  the  church,  by  way  of  badgering  those  of  their 
brethren  who  differed  from  them  in  politics.  Nor  can  I 
find  any  evidence  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  attention  was  ever 
called  to  it  by  those  who  had  benefited  by  his  letter. 

Dr.  McPheeters,  and  those  who  agreed  with  him  as  to  the 
relations  of  church  and  state,  abstained  from  attending  under 
the  circumstances,  leaving  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Louis  in  the 
hands  of  aminority- — eighteen  out  of  sixty  members — which 
proceeded  to  dissolve  the  pastoral  relation  existing  between 
him  and  the  Pine  Street  Church.  Complaints  against  this 
action  went  up  to  the  General  Assembly  of  1864,  from 
Dr.  McPheeters,  his  session,  and  a  majority  of  the  minis- 
ters and  sessions  of  the  Presbytery,  on  the  ground  that  the 
meeting  of  Presbytery  was  invalid,  its  proceedings  irregular 
and  unwarranted.  Most  unhappily,  the  Assembly  treated 
the  matter  of  military  interference  as  a  "  side  issue,"  and 
by  117  to  49  voted  not  to  sustain  the  appeal,  "  because 
the  proceedings  in  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Louis  appear  con- 
stitutional and  regular,"  "  and,  being  on  the  ground,  and 
conversant  with  all  the  facts  of  the  case,  they  seem  most 
competent  to  undertake  and  decide  upon  what "  action 
was  required  by  "  the  disturbed  state  of  the  church  "  in 
Pine  Street,  St.  Louis.  This  was  done  in  the  face  of  the 
opposition  of  passionate  Unionists  like  Dr.  George  Junkin, 
who  declared  that  the  independence  and  spirituality  of  the 
church  were  at  stake. 


THE  ASSEMBLY  OF  1865.  1 6/ 

This  action  naturally  left  a  very  bad  taste  in  the  mouths 
of  many  in  the  border  States.  It  was  not  removed  by 
the  deliverances  and  decisions  of  the  Assembly  of  1865, 
meeting  in  Pittsburg  a  month  after  the  assassination  of 
President  Lincoln,  with  the  sores  of  the  war  still  unhealed, 
and  its  fruits  still  ungathered.  All  the  Christian  world  has 
praised  the  magnanimity  with  which  the  American  people 
dealt  with  the  States  that  had  attempted  to  destroy  the 
unity  of  the  nation.  But  the  hour  for  magnanimity  had 
not  yet  struck,  nor  did  the  Assembly  anticipate  it  by  its 
action.  It  stigmatized  secession  as  a  crime,  and  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Southern  churches  as  a  schism.  It  offered 
recognition  and  restoration  to  such  Southern  ministers  as 
would  apply  for  it,  and  would  declare  their  acceptance  of 
the  deliverances  on  slavery.  It  directed  the  Board  of  Do- 
mestic Missions  to  treat  the  South  as  missionary  ground, 
and  to  employ  loyal  ministers  without  requiring  a  Presby- 
terial  recommendation,  where  this  could  not  be  obtained. 
It  proceeded  to  make  loyalty,  or  a  confession  of  repentance 
for  disloyalty,  and  a  rejection  of  the  theory  that  slavery 
is  "  a  divine  institution,"  tests  to  be  exacted  both  of  min- 
isters and  members  who  sought  to  enter  the  church. 

There  came  before  this  Assembly  "a  complaint  from 
Robert  P.  Farris,  of  Charles  City,  Mo.,  that  he  and  his  elder 
had  been  prevented  from  taking  part  in  the  organization 
of  the  Synod  of  Missouri  at  its  last  meeting.  The  moder- 
ator had  decided  that,  in  the  view  of  ecclesiastical  law, 
these  gentlemen  were  members  of  the  Synod,  but  that  in 
view  of  the  order  of  General  Rosecrans,  with  which  they 
had  not  complied,  he  could  not  allow  them  to  participate 
in  its  proceedings!  This  decision  was  reversed  after  the 
Synod  had  been  organized,  and  the  two  were  allowed  to  sit. 
But  it  was  made  a  test  case,  and  the  Assembly  declared 
that  it  was  "  not  called  upon  to  decide  anything  in  regard 


l68  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

to  the  propriety  or  impropriety  of  the  miUtary  order  re- 
ferred to,"  and  dismissed  tlie  appeal  on  technical  grounds. 
The  Protest  of  Dr.  Samuel  R.  Wilson  and  other  border- 
State  delegates,  in  which  they  spread  the  Rosecrans  Order 
on  the  minutes  of  the  Assembly,  was  the  first  step  toward 
a  movement  to  carry  the  churches  of  those  States  over  to 
the  Southern  Assembly,  whose  jurisdiction  was  no  longer 
circumscribed  by  its  title.  Following  the  precedent  set  in 
1835,  Dr.  Wilson  drafted  a  **  Declaration  and  Testimony  " 
against  all  the  deliverances  of  the  old-school  Assembly — 
from  the  Spring  Resolutions  of  1861  to  those  of  recent 
date — which  bore  upon  political  questions,  especially  the 
deliverances  on  slavery  in  1864  and  1865,  which  it  very 
truthfully  declared  to  be  in  contradiction  to  the  deliv- 
erance of  1845.  It  denounced  the  union  of  church  and 
state  which  had  been  reached  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
war ;  the  personal  proscription  of  men  like  Dr.  McPhee- 
ters  ;  and  the  virtual  excommunication  of  the  whole  South- 
ern church  by  the  Assembly  of  1865.  It  pledged  the 
signers  to  recognize  no  authority  in  ecclesiastical  decisions 
unwarranted  by  the  Scriptures,  especially  the  decisions  of 
the  last  two  Assemblies  on  slavery  and  loyalty,  *'  and  with 
reference  to  the  conducting  of  missions  in  the  Southern 
States,  and  with  regard  to  the  ministers,  members,  and 
churches  in  the  seceded  and  border  States."  This  was 
signed  by  fifty-four  ministers  and  one  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-three ruling  elders,  chiefly  in  the  border  States,  and 
was  formally  adopted  by  the  Presbytery  of  Louisville,  Ky., 
one  minister  alone  dissenting.  On  the  other  hand,  a  con- 
vention of  ministers  and  elders  for  prayer  and  conference 
was  held  at  St.  Louis,  at  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Robert  J. 
Breckinridge,  to  counteract  the  effect  of  the  Declaration 
and  Testimony.  It  prepared  a  Memorial,  urging  the  As- 
sembly to  stand   firmly  by  its  deliverances,  and  this  was 


THE   DECLARATION  AND    TESTIMONY.  169 

signed  by  eighty-four  ministers  and  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  elders,  of  whom  not  a  score  were  from  tlie  bor- 
der States. 

The  Assembly  of  1866  approved  the  Memorial  and  or- 
dered it  to  be  printed,  and  then  took  up  the  gauntlet  of 
the  Declaration  and  Testimony  people  in  much  the  spirit 
in  which  it  had  been  flung  down.  It  condemned  that 
document  as  "  a  slander  on  the  church,  schismatical  in 
character  and  aims,"  summoned  its  signers  to  the  bar  of 
the  next  Assembly,  excluded  them  from  sitting  in  church 
courts  in  the  meantime,  and  declared  any  Presbytery 
"  ipso  facto  dissolved  "  that  should  enroll  them,  authorizing 
the  ministers  and  elders  of  that  Presbytery  who  adhered 
to  the  Assembly  to  take  charge  of  the  records,  retain  the 
name,  and  exercise  the  authority  of  the  Presbytery.  This 
*'  Gurley  Order  "  was  adopted  by  196  votes  to  37.  Several 
protests  were  entered,  but  one  by  Dr.  Henry  A.  Board- 
man  was  rejected  as  disrespectful  to  the  Assembly. 

This  action,  as  must  have  been  expected,  ran  the  line  of 
division  through  the  Presbyteries  in  the  Synods  of  Ken- 
tucky and  Missouri.  The  signers  of  the  Declaration  and 
Testimony  stood  by  their  action ;  and  twelve  Presbyteries 
divided  on  the  issue  of  admitting  them  to  seats,  and  sent 
rival  delegations  to  the  Assembly  of  1867.  The  Assem- 
bly, after  hearing  two  of  the  signers  in  their  own  defense, 
by  a  vote  of  261  to  4  admitted  the  delegations  from  the 
Presbyteries  which  had  acted  as  the  Assembly  of  1866  had 
directed.  Thus  two  Synods  were  cut  off  from  connection 
with  the  Assembly,  and  suits  for  church  property  began. 
The  case  of  the  Walnut  Street  Church  in  Louisville  was 
made  a  test.  The  courts  of  the  State  decided  against  the 
adherents  of  the  Assembly ;  but  as  some  of  them  were 
citizens  of  another  State,  they  were  able  to  take  it  before 
the  courts  of   the  United   States.      Finally  the  Supreme 


lyo  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

Court  of  the  United  States  decided  the  case  in  favor  of  the 
adherents  of  the  Assembly,  on  much  the  same  grounds  of 
ecclesiastical  omnipotence  as  the  Pennsylvania  decision  of 

1839. 

It  was  noteworthy  that  throughout  this  controversy  the 
decided  old-school  men  of  the  border  States,  and  those 
who  sympathized  with  them  in  other  parts  of  the  church, 
displayed  a  great  liking  for  the  arguments  by  which  the 
new-school  men  had  arraigned  the  Exscinding  Acts  of 
1837.  The  power  of  the  Assembly  to  exercise  original 
jurisdiction,  or  to  condemn  without  the  formality  of  a  tria>, 
was  stoutly  denied,  and  the  rights  of  Presbyteries  were  as- 
serted strongly.  On  the  other  hand,  I  observed  that  the 
new-school  men  did  not  find  so  much  comfort  in  this  as 
might  have  been  expected.  Their  sympathies  went  so 
strongly  with  the  majority  in  the  old-school  Assembly, 
against  a  party  they  regarded  as  but  half-loyal,  if  so  much, 
that  they  generally  refrained  from  speaking  evil  of  the 
Gurley  Order,  and  of  the  drastic  proceedings  to  which  it 
led.  In  the  nearly  thirty  years  which  have  passed  a  gentler 
spirit  has  come  to  prevail,  and  the  acts  of  the  Assemblies 
of  1865-67  are  not  those  upon  which  Presbyterians  gener- 
ally look  back  with  gratification. 

The  two  Synods  thus  thrown  upon  themselves  were 
really  bound  by  their  own  principles  to  maintain  their 
isolation.  The  lofty  principles  of  the  severance  of  religion 
from  politics,  of  matters  ecclesiastical  from  matters  civil, 
on  which  they  took  their  stand,  were  no  more  those  of  the 
Southern  than  of  the  national  Assembly.  A  perusal  of 
the  minutes  of  the  former  during  the  years  of  the  war 
would  have  furnished  them  with  materials  for  a  Declara- 
tion and  Testimony  quite  as  long  and  as  acerb  as  that 
which  had  led  to  their  excision  from  their  own  church. 
The  Missouri  Synod,  indeed,  seemed  to  feel  this,  as  it  per- 


CHANGES  IN   THE   SOUTH.  17I 

petuated  its  separate  existence  until  1874.  The  Kentucky 
Presbyteries,  which  had  had  no  Rosecrans  Order  to  com- 
plain of,  but  had  been  the  loudest  in  their  protests  against 
the  confusion  of  church  and  state  matters,  found  their  way 
to  the  Southern  Assembly  in  1868.  Once  more  political 
affinities  sufficed  to  modify  ecclesiastical  convictions. 

One  effect  of  their  adherence  was  to  strengthen  the 
work  of  the  Southern  church,  especially  in  the  home  field. 
Another  was  to  teach  her  new  modes  of  speech  with  re- 
gard to  public  questions,  and  to  impress  upon  her  a  con- 
ception of  "the  spirituality  of  the  church,"  which  hardly 
can  be  brought  into  harmony  w4th  the  utterances  of  her 
Assemblies,  Synods,  Presbyteries,  and  pulpits  during  the 
war.  But  by  withdrawing  from  the  old-school  church  the 
element  which  stood  nearest  to  the  South,  it  put  off  the 
day  of  reconciliation  with  the  Presbyterians  of  that  section. 

The  Southern  church  obtained  other  accessions  during 
this  period.  In  1867  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery 
of  Alabama,  and  in  1870  that  of  Kentucky,  entered  its 
communion,  the  ties  of  political  sympathy  proving  stronger 
than  their  repugnance  to  hymn-singing. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  REUNION  OF  THE  OLD  AND  NEW  SCHOOL 
CHURCHES,  1869-70. 

The  first  effect  of  the  spirit  of  the  new  age  upon  the 
American  churches  was  to  intensify  sectarian  feehng.  The 
next  was  to  awaken  a  yearning  after  Christian  unity.  Dr. 
Archibald  Alexander,  in  1841,  "strongly  maintained  that 
there  was  less  and  less  appearance  of  amalgamation  among 
Protestant  sects,"  although  he  had  been  watching  for  sixty 
years.  It  was  matter  of  remark  when  an  evangelist  like 
Daniel  Baker  preached  the  gospel  of  love  wherever  he 
could  find  an  opening,  without  reference  to  any  advantage 
to  his  own  church.  And  he  had  part  of  his  reward  in  see- 
ing two  bishops  of  the  Episcopal  Church  among  the  fruits 
of  his  Presbyterian  labors. 

Since  i860,  however,  there  has  been  a  great  change  of 
tone.  The  separate  churches  are  put  upon  their  defense 
to  justify  their  separate  existence.  The  rapid  pace  at 
which  our  political  unity  has  been  reached  is  felt  to  be  an 
adverse  criticism  upon  the  persistence  of  old-world  sepa- 
rations in  our  religious  Hfe.  The  war  itself,  by  throwing 
men  into  new  associations  with  their  fellow-citizens  and 
bringing  home  to  them  how  much  they  had  in  common  as 
men  and  as  Christians,  contributed  greatly  to  this.  The 
high  value  men  learned  to  place  on  national  unity  naturally 
and  easily  led  to  hopes  of  a  better  day   when  sectarian 

172 


A    REUNION  CONFERENCE.  173 

lines  would  cease  to  divide  us,  just  as  sectional  lines  were 
vanishing. 

In  the  Presbyterian  Church  this  uniting  tendency  was 
felt  very  early  in  the  war.  The  old-school  Assembly  of 
1862  took  the  first  step  by  proposing  *' a  friendly  inter- 
change of  commissioners"  between  the  two  Assemblies ; 
and  the  new-school  Assembly  of  1863  responded  with 
great  heartiness.  The  next  step  came  again  from  the 
same  quarter.  During  the  sessions  of  the  old-school  As- 
sembly of  1864  a  reunion  conference  was  held  and  a  paper 
adopted  and  published  with  the  signatures  of  seventy  min- 
isters and  fifty-three  elders.  It  expressed  confidence  in 
the  doctrinal  soundness  and  ecclesiastical  orderliness  of 
both  churches,  and  in  the  possibility  of  removing  the  ob- 
stacles to  reunion  by  developing  "  a  spirit  of  unity  and 
fraternity." 

Two  years  later  both  the  Assemblies  met  in  St.  Louis 
and  found  on  their  tables  memorials  from  their  Presbyteries 
asking  that  steps  be  taken  to  reunite  the  churches.  Again 
the  old  school  took  the  initiative,  expressing  an  "  earnest 
desire  for  reunion  at  the  earliest  time  consistent  with  agree- 
ment in  doctrine,  order,  and  policy,  on  the  basis  of  our 
common  standards  and  the  prevalence  of  mutual  love  and 
confidence,"  and  proposing  a  Joint  Committee  of  nine  min- 
isters and  six  ruling  elders  from  each  body  to  discuss  its 
feasibility.  Assent  on  the  part  of  the  new  school  was 
unanimous.  The  men  chosen  on  each  side  were  not  from 
among  the  professors  but  from  the  working  pastors  of  the 
church.  Dr.  Stearns,  on  the  new-school  side,  was  the 
only  scientific  theologian  among  them.  After  two  joint 
meetings  they  were  able  to  report  to  the  two  Assemblies 
of  1869  a  plan  of  reunion,  "  on  the  doctrinal  and  ecclesias- 
tical basis  of  the  common  standards;"  the  Confession  of 
Faith  **  to   be  sincerely  received  "   in  ''  its  fair   historical 


174  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

sense,  as  it  is  accepted  by  the  two  bodies,  in  opposition  to 
antinomianism  and  fatalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  Ar- 
minianism  and  Pelagianism  on  the  other."  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  number  of  articles  for  effecting  the  readjust- 
ments which  would  be  required  by  the  new  condition  of 
things.  This  plan  they  asked  to  have  published  for  infor- 
mation and  referred  to  the  Assemblies  of  1868  for  action. 

Without  waiting  for  this,  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  attacked 
the  plan  in  the  ''Princeton  Review"  for  July,  1867,  as- 
serting that  the  new  school  never  had  "  sincerely  received 
in  their  integrity  all  the  doctrines  essential  to  the  Reformed 
or  Calvinistic  system,"  and  that  less  than  this  as  a  condi- 
tion of  union  would  be  "  not  only  inexpedient  but  morally 
wrong."  Dr.  H.  B.  Smith,  in  the  *'  Presbyterian  and 
Theological  Review,"  met  this  charge  with  a  flat  contra- 
diction. He  declared  that  the  new-school  church  received 
the  Confession  in  precisely  that  ''  Reformed  or  Calvinistic 
sense  "  which  Dr.  Hodge  demanded,  and  that  those  who 
opposed  reunion  *'  assumed  a  most  serious  responsibility." 
His  superior  historical  learning  gave  great  weight  to  his 
affirmations  as  regards  what  was  **  essential  to  the  Re- 
formed or  Calvinistic  system,"  while  his  independent  atti- 
tude within  the  new-school  church  (p.  139)  made  his  testi- 
mony to  its  orthodoxy  especially  important. 

Thus  far  the  question  had  been  handled  in  rather  a 
gingerly  fashion,  which  seemed  to  show  that  those  en- 
gaged with  it  were  more  conscious  of  the  difficulties  in 
the  way  than  hopeful  of  overcoming  them.  What  was 
needed  was  a  clear,  sharp  crystallization  of  the  sentiment 
in  favor  of  reunion,  and  this  came  from  an  unexpected 
quarter.  In  the  Reformed  Presbyterian  (N.  S.)  General 
Synod  of  1867  a  resolution  was  offered  by  George  H. 
Stuart  calling  a  convention  of  all  the  Presbyterian  churches 
to  consider  the  question  of  a  general  reunion.     The  Synod 


BISHOPS  MCILVAINE  AND  LEE.  175 

addressed  this  invitation  to  the  other  national  assembhes, 
but  it  was  the  Presbyteries  which  acted  on  it  and  sent 
delegations.  Ministers  and  elders  to  the  number  of  263 — 
162  from  the  old  school,  64  from  the  new  school,  12  from 
the  United  Presbyterians,  12  from  the  Reformed  Presby- 
terians (N.  S.),  6  from  the  Reformed  Dutch,  6  from  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterians,  and  i  from  the  Southern  Pres- 
byterians— assembled  in  the  First  Reformed  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Philadelphia  on  Novembers,  1867.  From  first 
to  last  the  spirit  of  peace  and  of  brotherly  love  seemed 
to  brood  over  the  proceedings.  Men  who  knew  one  another 
only  in  the  encounters  of  polemics  met  face  to  face.  Drs. 
Hodge  and  Smith,  fresh  from  their  tourney  over  the  Joint 
Committee's  plan,  found  themselves  associated  lovingly  in 
prayer  and  praise  for  the  great  object  of  their  debate. 
The  high  tide  of  feeling  was  reached  when  the  venerable 
Bishops  Mcllvaine  and  Lee,  at  the  head  of  a.  deputation 
from  the  annual  meetings  of  two  of  the  great  evangelical 
societies  of  their  church,  came  to  bid  the  convention  **  God- 
speed "  in  its  work,  and  to  speak  kind  words  of  their  Pres- 
byterian brethren. 

The  business  of  the  convention,  to  propose  a  basis  of 
Presbyterian  reunion,  was  intrusted  to  a  committee  of  one 
minister  and  one  elder  from  each  of  the  churches  repre- 
sented. They  brought  in  a  unanimous  report,  of  which 
the  second  article  provided  that  "  in  the  united  church  the 
Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  shall  be  received  and 
adopted  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the 
Holy  Scripture."  To  this  Dr.  Smith,  taking  the  words 
from  Dr.  Hodge's  article  in  the  "  Princeton  Review," 
proposed  an  addition :  "  It  being  understood  that  this  Con- 
fession is  received  in  its  proper  historical,  that  is,  the  Cal- 
vinistic  or  Reformed,  sense."  On  this  the  delegations 
voted  separately,  the  new  school  adopting  it  by  46  to  2. 


176  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

This  action  went  a  great  way  to  remove  the  objections 
many  of  the  old  school  had  felt.  The  atmosphere  grew 
clearer,  and  the  speedy  coming  of  the  reunion  was  now 
taken  for  granted. 

Yet  when  the  Joint  Committee  met  the  next  year,  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  seemed  greater  than  ever.  The  oid- 
school  men  wanted  the  Philadelphia  Article.  The  new- 
school  men  were  agreed,  provided  a  clause  were  added 
stating  that  this  already  was  the  position  held  by  both 
churches;  or  they  were  willing  to  take  the  original  doc- 
trinal article  of  1867,  either  with  or  without  Dr.  Smith's 
amendment.  The  old  school  did  not  like  either,  but  when 
asked  for  an  alternative  had  none  to  offer.  The  evident 
purpose  was  to  reach  a  formula,  which  would  be  open 
to  no  attack  from  the  conservatives  of  the  old  school, 
while  soothing  the  susceptibilities  of  the  other  church. 
These  last  had  been  roused  by  acrimonious  resuscitations 
of  the  charges  made  in  1835-37,  At  last  Dr.  Gurley,  of 
Washington,  proposed  to  supplement  the  Philadelphia 
Article,  with  Dr.  Smith's  amendment,  by  another  which 
declared : 

"  It  is  also  understood  that  various  methods  of  viewing, 
stating,  explaining,  and  illustrating  the  doctrines  of  the 
Confession,  which  do  not  impair  the  integrity  of  the  Re- 
formed or  Calvinistic  system,  are  to  be  freely  allowed  in 
the  united  church,  as  they  have  hitherto  been  allowed  in 
the  separate  churches." 

This  basis  the  Joint  Committee  accepted  as  securing  to 
the  new  school  theological  liberty  within  the  bounds  they 
themselves  had  declared  to  be  those  they  desired,  while  it 
left  it  free  to  the  reunited  church  to  deal  with  any  whose 
teachings  exceeded  just  limits  and  corresponded  to  what 
the  conservatives  of  the  old  school  declared  to  be  the  belief 
of  radical  new- school  men.      They  reported  it  to  the  As- 


ANSWER    TO    7' HE   PROTEST.  I  77 

semblies  of  1868,  adding  also  to  their  previous  proposals 
an  agreement  acknowledging  the  right — not  the  duty — of 
Presbyteries  "to  examine  ministers  applying  for  admission 
from  other  Presbyteries."  In  the  new-school  Assembly  it 
was  this  Tenth  Article  which  roused  the  most  opposition,  as 
being  thoroughly  un-Presbyterian  in  its  character,  and  un- 
known to  the  sister-churches  of  both  Europe  and  America. 
In  the  old  school  the  opposition  centered  on  the  two  qualify- 
ing amendments  to  the  Philadelphia  Article.  Even  that 
which  Dr.  Smith  had  framed  in  Dr.  Hodge's  words  was 
felt  to  be  not  quite  safe  for  conservatism.  Who  could 
tell  how  much  this  appeal  to  doctrinal  history — to  a  region 
of  which  so  little  was  known — might  be  made  to  cover? 
When  the  Assembly  finally  adopted  it  by  a  vote  of  185  to 
79,  a  strong  minority  offered  a  Protest,  drafted  by  Dr. 
Charles  Hodge,  alleging  the  lists  of  errors  in  the  "  Memo- 
rial"  of  1837  as  evidence  of  the  doctrinal  unsoundness  of 
the  new-school  church  as  a  whole.  The  answer  to  this 
Protest  was  prepared  by  Dr.  William  G.  T.  Shedd  and 
adopted  by  the  Assembly.      Among  other  things,  it  said : 

'*  These  very  errors,  charged  by  the  signers  of  the  Pro- 
test as  allowed  by  the  new-school  Presbyterians,  have 
already  been  repudiated  by  them.  The  Auburn  Conven- 
tion, held  in  1837,  under  the  influence  and  doctrinal  guid- 
ance of  that  excellent  and  sound  divine,  the  late  Dr. 
Richards,  specified  sixteen  doctrinal  errors,  which  contain 
the  very  same  latitudinarian  and  heretical  tenets  men- 
tioned in  the  Protest,  rejected  tiiem  i?t  toto,  and  set  over 
against  them  sixteen  *  true  doctrines,'  which  embrace  all 
the  fundamentals  of  the  Calvinistic  creed.  This  Assembly 
regard  the  *  Auburn  Declaration  '  as  an  authoritative  state- 
ment of  the  new-school  type  of  Calvinism." 

It  was  felt,  however,  that  the  situation  was  critical  as 
regards  the  old-school  church,  unless  something  more  were 


178  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

(lone  to  conciliate  the  opposition.  It  was  suggested  that 
reunion  on  the  basis  of  "  the  standards  pure  and  simple  " 
would  meet  with  less  resistance.  A  resolution  proposing 
the  omission  of  both  the  Smith  and  the  Gurley  Amend- 
ments was  adopted,  and  sent  to  the  other  Assembly  by  a 
special  delegation.  Before  it  arrived  from  Albany  in 
Harrisburg  the  attendance  had  fallen  below  a  quorum,  and 
no  action  could  be  taken.  So  the  Joint  Committee's  basis 
alone  went  down  to  the  Presbyteries  in  overture,  for  ap- 
proval or  rejection.  Yet  while  the  new-school  Presby- 
teries voted  approval  of  this,  the  old-school  Presbyteries 
very  generally  voted  their  approval  of  *'the  standard  pure 
and  simple"  basis,  which  had  never  been  before  the  new- 
school  Assembly  for  action.  This  was  largely  in  pursuance 
of  the  advice  given  in  the  Pittsburg  Circular,  which  was 
proposed  by  Dr.  James  Allison,  of  the  *'  Presbyterian  Ban- 
ner," and  signed  by  Professor  A.  A.  Hodge,  Dr.  M.  W. 
Jacobus,  Dr.  William  M.  Paxton,  and  others.  As  a  result 
the  Plan  of  Reunion  was  accepted  in  one  branch  and  re- 
jected in  the  other. 

When  the  two  Assemblies  met  in  New  York  in  1869, 
the  zeal  of  the  new  school  for  reunion  was  visibly  cooling. 
The  manner  of  procedure  on  the  other  side  had  been  un- 
satisfactory, if  not  discourteous.  The  men  who  had  carried 
the  Joint  Committee's  plan  through  the  old-school  Assem- 
bly had  failed  to  stand  by  it  in  the  Presbyteries.  They 
had  shown  more  eagerness  to  soothe  the  feelings  of  those 
who  had  stirred  again^he  bitter  waters  of  1835-37,  than 
to  carry  out  the  agreement  definitely  reached.  During 
the  interval  between  the  two  Assemblies  many  unfraternal 
and  irritating  things  had  been  said  of  new-school  men. 
The  names  of  Albert  Barnes  and  George  Duffield  had 
been  bandied  about  as  those  of  convicted  and  condemned 
heretics,  and  security  had  been  asked  that  in  the  future 


DR.   STEARNS'S  SERMON.  I  79 

no  such  men  should  make  their  way  into  the  ministry  of 
the  church.  Even  more  offensive  than  these  demands  had 
been  the  answers  made  to  them  by  some  who  regarded 
themselves  as  excellent  friends  of  reunion.  It  was  implied 
that  the  new-school  church  had  nothing  to  ask  but  "  a 
tombstone  and  an  epitaph  "  ;  that  the  body  negotiating 
under  that  name  was  substantially  an  old-school  church  ; 
and  that  Mr.  Barnes  stood  isolated  in  its  ministry,  an  un- 
venerable  relic  of  an  abandoned  past.  In  this  light,  it  was 
said,  what  was  the  meaning  of  the  hostility  shown  to  the 
Gurley  Amendment,  which  assured  the  lesser  church 
against  undue  rigidity  on  the  part  of  the  larger?  Why 
talk  of  exacting  pledges  as  unbrotherly  and  discourteous? 
The  man  whose  word  is  as  good  as  his  bond  never  refuses 
to  give  his  bond. 

Fortunately  for  reunion,  Dr.  Stearns  was  the  retiring 
moderator  of  the  new-school  Assembly,  and  in  his  sermon 
he  pleaded  with  all  his  soul  for  what  had  seemed  a  sink- 
ing cause.  The  churches  of  the  city  threw  around  the 
Assembly  an  atmosphere  more  friendly  to  it  than  they 
would  have  encountered  in  Philadelphia  or  Pittsburg. 
Union  prayer-meetings  of  the  two  Assemblies  brought 
back  the  lost  fervor.  A  new  Committee  of  Conference 
brought  in  a  unanimous  report  for  a  reunion  of  the  two 
churches  on  the  basis  of  the  standards  simply,  '*  each  rec- 
ognizing the  other  as  a  sound  and  orthodox  body,  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  the  Confession  common  to  both." 
This  doctrinal  clause  alone  was  to  be  overtured  to  the 
Presbyteries,  the  other  parts  of  the  basis  being  converted 
into  "Concurrent  Declarations"  of  the  two  Assemblies. 
The  new-school  Assembly  once  more  voted  unanimous 
approval.  In  the  other  Assembly  the  vote  was  285  to  9, 
the  minority  being  five  ministers  and  four  elders. 

The  vote  of  the  Presbyteries  in  the  months  following 


l8o  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

was  in  much  the  same  proportion.  Every  one  of  the  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  Presbyteries  of  the  new-school  church 
voted  to  approve,  and  all  but  three  of  them  unanimously, 
the  minority  in  each  case  being  a  single  member.  Of  the 
one  hundred  and  forty-four  Presbyteries  of  the  old-school 
church,  all  but  thirteen  responded  to  the  overture.  Of 
these  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  voted  approval,  and 
three  rejection.  Among  the  minority  was  Dr.  Charles 
Hodge,  who  '*  rode  nine  miles  to  meet  the  Presbytery  in 
Cranberry,  on  October  5,  1869,  with  the  anthrax  inali- 
tiosissiuiiis  on  the  back  of  his  neck,  for  the  purpose  of 
casting  his  final  vote  against"  reunion. 

The  two  Assemblies  had  adjourned  to  meet  at  Pittsburg 
on  November  loth  to  consummate  the  reunion,  if  it  had 
been  voted  by  the  necessary  majority  of  the  Presbyteries. 
The  proceedings  were  in  the  main  of  a  formal  or  congratu- 
latory character.  Each  Assembly  declared  the  Basis  of  Re- 
union to  be  of  binding  force,  and  declared  its  own  dissolution, 
the  moderators  calling  another  Assembly  to  meet  in  the 
First  Church  in  Philadelphia  in  May,  1870.  The  members 
of  the  two  bodies  then  met  in  front  of  the  First  Church, 
in  which  the  old-school  Assembly  had  been  meeting,  and, 
pairing  ofT,  marched,  amid  great  popular  enthusiasm,  to 
the  Third  Church,  in  which  the  new-school  Assembly  had 
held  its  sessions.  Here  a  reunion  ratification  meeting  was 
held,  and  a  joint  communion  service  in  the  afternoon.  At 
the  former  a  resolution  was  adopted  to  raise  $5,000,000 
as  a  thank-offering  for  the  restoration  of  peace.  Pittsburg, 
most  Scotch-Irish  of  American  cities,  had  had  its  share  in 
the  troubles  which  had  divided  the  church.  It  now  wit- 
nessed and  approved  the  transaction  which  brought  the" 
division  to  an  end. 

Upon  the  Assembly  of  1 8 70,  meeting  in  Albert  Barnes's 
church,  devolved  the  duty  of  carrying  into  effect  the  Con- 


REUNION  CONSUMMATED.  •        l8i 

current  Declarations  of  1869.  Sixty  General  Assemblies 
had  met  in  the  city,  forty-four  of  them  before  the  division, 
and  most  of  them  in  the  same  church.  Of  the  two  retir- 
ing moderators  Dr.  Jacobus  took  charge  of  the  business 
procedure,  and  Dr.  Fowler  preached  the  sermon,  in  which 
he  pleaded,  on  grounds  of  expediency,  for  the  establish- 
ment of  personal  supervision  over  the  churches,  such  as 
John  Knox's  superintendents  had  exercised.  Any  comfort 
Episcopalians  might  have  got  from  the  suggestion  was 
neutralized  by  his  reference  to  the  "imbecile  pulpit"  of 
that  denomination. 

The  united  church  was  subdivided  into  thirty-four 
Synods,  two  of  them  on  the  mission  field,  and  these  were 
directed  to  reorganize  the  Presbyteries  within  their  bounds. 
The  Concurrent  Declarations  had  proposed  that  the  theolog- 
ical seminaries  place  themselves  under  Synodical  control. 
As  there  were  legal  difficulties  in  the  way,  the  directors  of 
Union  and  Princeton  Seminaries  simultaneously  proposed, 
the  others  assenting,  that  ecclesiastical  control  should  take 
the  shape  of  giving  the  Assembly  a  veto  upon  the  elec- 
tion and  removal  of  professors — an  arrangement  accepted 
promptly  as  solving  a  grave  difficulty. 

The  consolidation  of  the  boards  was  quickly  effected,  as 
the  differences  which  had  played  so  great  a  part  in  1835- 
37  had  as  good  as  disappeared.  The  old  school,  thanks 
to  Dr.  Thornwell's  criticisms  and  Dr.  Hodge's  concessions, 
were  no  longer  of  the  mind  that  these  organizations  were 
implied  in  the  apostolic  commission.  The  new  school  had 
found  that  voluntary  societies  embracing  several  denomi- 
nations were  apt  to  be  sources  of  disappointment  and  irrita- 
tion. The  Boards  of  Foreign  and  Home  Missions  were 
located  in  New  York,  as  that  city  had  not  only  surpassed 
Philadelphia  in  population,  but  had  acquired  greater  facil- 
ities for  prompt  communication  with  both  fields. 


1 82  THE  PRESBYTERIAMS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

The  new-school  church  now  terminated  its  connection 
with  the  American  Board,  and  effected  a  division  of  the 
mission  fields  with  that  body.  Ten  years  before  this  that 
church  had  given  expression  to  its  discontent  with  an  ar- 
rangement which  had  resulted  in  the  existence  of  but  one 
genuine  Presbyterian  church  in  the  foreign  field  after  the 
expenditure  of  millions  in  missionary  operations.  They 
did  not  charge  the  board  with  any  conscious  manage- 
ment to  secure  this  result;  yet  they  saw  in  its  operations 
what  was  confirmed  by  the  published  lectures  on  Foreign 
Missions  by  Secretary  Anderson — indications  of  the  work- 
ings of  Congregationalist  ideals  in  the  management  of 
mission  affairs.  In  1859  the}/  had  asked  that  every  facil- 
ity be  given  for  the  formation  of  missionary  Presbyteries; 
and  although  the  request  was  granted,  not  one  such  Pres- 
bytery appears  in  the  Minutes  of  1869,  while  forty-five 
foreign  missionaries,  including  Drs.  Tliomson  and  Jessup 
of  Syria,  Dr.  Doolittle  of  China,  Mr.  Bushnell  of  Gaboon, 
Mr.  Bowen  of  Bombay,  and  Mr.  Wilder  of  Kolapoor,  are 
distributed  among  the  Presbyteries  at  home,  with  which 
their  connection  could  not  be  more  than  nominal.  These 
facts  helped  to  influence  the  new-school  church  toward  re- 
union as  certain  to  bring  with  it  a  more  consistent  missionary 
policy.  The  Assembly  of  1869  opened  negotiations  for  a 
transfer  of  a  fair  share  of  the  mission  fields  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board,  in  view  of  the  withdrawal  of  new-school  support 
from  its  treasury.  This  finally  resulted  in  the  transfer  of 
the  Syrian  and  Persian  missions,  that  in  the  Gaboon  dis- 
trict of  Africa,  and  those  to  four  of  our  own  Indian  tribes, 
to  the  care  of  the  reunited  church.  This  was  done  with 
due  consideration  for  CongregationaHsts  laboring  in  these 
fields,  but  with  the  understanding  that  they  should  be  re- 
placed and  supplemented  by  Presbyterian  workers  only. 

Somewhat  similar  was  the   problem  presented   by  the 


RE  OR  GA  NIZA  TION.  1 8  3 

churches  organized  under  the  Plan  of  Union  in  New  York 
and  the  western  States.  The  Concurrent  Declarations  of 
1869  called  upon  *'  imperfectly  organized  churches  "  to  per- 
fect their  organization  by  the  election  of  a  session  within  fi\e 
years  at  latest.  This  made  the  reunion  a  signal  fcjr 
a  struggle  between  the  Presbyterians  and  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  in  the  area  organized  under  the  Plan  of  Union, 
the  former  urging  these  Presbygational  churches  to  become 
thoroughly  Presbyterian,  while  the  latter  pleaded  with 
them  to  assert  their  independence  and  cast  in  their  lot 
with  the  churches  of  the  New  England  order.  The  ma- 
jority became  Presbyterian,  and  with  this  decision  the  Plan 
of  Union  passed  out  of  history. 

The  consolidation  of  the  two  Boards  of  Publication  was 
effected  by  the  removal  from  the  catalogues  of  each  of  what- 
ever must  be  offensive  to  the  sensibilities  of  the  other  body. 
To  facilitate  matters,  Mr.  Barnes  withdrew  all  his  publica- 
tions from  the  Presbyterian  PubHcation  Committee  and 
transferred  them  to  private  publishers.  Dr.  Gillette  revised 
his  **  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,"  though  not  so 
as  to  eliminate  all  his  criticisms  of  the  exscinding  policy  of 
1837.  The  result  is  a  tamer  and  less  piquant  book,  so 
that  the  original  edition  is  more  in  demand.  ♦ 

As  one  of  the  Concurrent  Declarations  enacted  that  ''  no 
rule  or  precedent  which  does  not  stand  approved  by  both 
the  bodies  should  be  of  any  authority  until  reestablished 
in  the  united  body,"  except  so  far  as  these  might  affect 
rights  of  property,  it  was  thought  that  this  opened  the 
way  for  peace  with  the  Southern  church.  The  contro- 
versial heats  which  the  Declaration  and  Testimony  had 
produced  were  cooling  off.  The  deliverances  of  the  old- 
school  Assembly  on  that  and  other  questions  growing  out 
of  the  war  were  now  of  no  force  except  so  far  as  they 
corresponded  to  deli\erances  of  the  new-school  Assembly 


1 84  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiV. 

on  the  same  subject.  On  motion  of  Dr.  William  Adams, 
of  New  York,  who  had  been  the  chairman  of  the  new- 
school  half  of  the  Joint  Committee  on  Reunion,  a  dele- 
gation of  two  ministers  and  one  elder  was  appointed  to 
proceed  to  the  Assembly  meeting  in  Louisville,  to  call 
attention  to  this  feature  of  the  Basis  of  Reunion  and  pro- 
pose a  Joint  Committee  for  friendly  conference  as  to  the 
relations  of  the  two  churches.  The  delegation  was  court- 
eously received,  and  the  proposed  committee  agreed  to, 
but  on  such  terms  as  led  the  united  Assembly  to  dismiss 
the  subject  and  discharge  its  committee.  The  Southern 
Assembly,  in  the  tone  and  style  of  the  Declaration  and 
Testimony,  charged  that  both  branches  of  the  reunited 
church  "  did  fatally  complicate  themselves  with  the  state 
inpoUtical  utterances  deliberately  uttered  year  after  year." 
It  declared  that  **  the  union  now  consummated  was  accom- 
plished by  methods  which,  in  our  judgment,  involve  a  total 
surrender  of  all  the  great  testimonies  of  the  church  for  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  grace.  ...  Of  these  falHng  tes- 
timonies, w^e  are  the  sole  surviving  heirs."  With  much 
more  pertinence  and  accuracy  it  recalled  the  violent  and 
unconstitutional  expulsion  of  some  of  the  members  of  its 
own  body,  and  declared  that  the  action  then  taken  by  the 
old-school  church  was  '*  no  mere  '  rule  '  or  '  precedent,'  but 
a  solemn  sentence  of  outlawry,"  and  demanded  **an  une- 
quivocal repudiation  of  that  interpretation  of  the  law,"  as 
a  condition  of  the  restoration  of  official  relations.  The 
olive-branch  was  thus  used,  and  not  for  the  last  time,  to 
castigate  those  who  offered  it. 

The  resolution  for  a  Reunion  Thanksgiving  Fund  came 
before  the  Assembly,  that  it  might  define  the  objects  prop- 
erly to  be  embraced  in  the  range  of  gifts.  It  did  so  with  the 
aim  of  excluding  the  ordinary  contributions.  The  sum  fi- 
nally reported  to  the  Assembly  of  1871  was  $7,607,491.91. 


SUSPENSION  OF  MR.    STUART.  1 85 

Of  this  $5,737,545.38  went  to  the  erection  or  repair  of 
churches  and  manses,  or  the  extinction  of  debt  on  them, 
and  $1,083,478.72  to  institutions  of  learning. 

Of  the  other  participants  in  tlie  Reunion  Convention  of 
1867,  none  proceeded  farther  in  the  movement  toward  a 
general  reunion.  Both  the  Assemblies  in  session  at  Pitts- 
burg resolved  to  ask  conference  with  the  United  Presby- 
terian Church  with  a  view  to  union  on  the  basis  of  treating 
the  differences  as  to  psalmody  and  the  like  as  matters  of 
forbearance.  The  negotiations  were  continued  for  some 
years,  but  proved  fruitless.  The  Reformed  Presbyterian 
(N.  S.)  General  Synod,  which  had  called  the  Philadelphia 
Convention,  passed  into  control  of  the  party  of  reaction  at 
its  sessions  in  1868.  It  suspended  Mr.  George  H.  Stuart 
by  resolution  from  the  eldership  and  from  membership  for 
the  offense  of  singing  uninspired  hymns  and  meeting  Chris- 
tians of  other  names  at  the  Lord's  table.  As  both  these  of- 
fenses had  been  avowed  before  the  Synod  of  1856,  and  had 
been  condoned  by  his  reelection  to  all  the  offices  he  held  in 
the  gift  of  Synod,  this  action  was  regarded  by  his  friends  as 
not  only  unjust  but  revolutionary.  It  subjected  a  large 
part  of  the  ministry  and  membership  to  discipline  for  acts 
which,  for  twelve  years,  had  been  treated  as  worthy  of 
toleration.  The  Presbyteries  of  Philadelphia,  Pittsburg, 
and  Saharunpoor  suspended  relations  with  the  General 
Synod  until  Mr.  Stuart  should  be  restored,  and  for  this 
they  were  exscinded  by  the  General  Synod  of  1869.  All 
three  connected  themselves  with  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
the  two  latter  in  1870,  and  that  of  Pliiladelphia  in  1 881. 
This  delay  was  to  permit  a  decision  on  suits  brought  by 
the  adherents  of  the  Synod  for  church  property  in  Phil- 
adelphia. The  Supreme  Court  showed  a  great  advance 
on  its  earlier  decisions  in  refusing  to  accept  the  decision 
of  the  General   Synod  as  final,  and   deciding  that  it  was 


1 86  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

bound  by  its  own  constitution,  like  any  other  voluntary 
society.  It  therefore  gave  the  property  in  two  cases  to 
Mr.  Stuart's  friends,  and  the  third  was  compromised  in 
consequence.  In  the  meantime  the  Western  Presbytery, 
where  there  was  most  dissatisfaction  with  the  course  taken 
by  the  General  Synod  in  1858,  withdrew  and  joined  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church.  By  these  and  subsequent 
losses  the  strength  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian  (N.  S.) 
Church  has  been  reduced  to  less  than  half  that  of  the  Old 
Side  Covenanters. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

WORK    AND    GROWTH,    1870-88. 

The  reunion  of  the  old  and  new  school  churches  oc- 
curred at  a  time  when  the  liveliest  interest  was  felt  in 
Christian  work  of  every  kind.  There  was  a  disposition  to 
discredit  any  kind  of  Christian  living  or  thinking  which  did 
not  bear  immediate  fruit  in  some  practical  service.  Martha, 
not  Mary,  came  well  to  the  front  in  the  household  of  faith. 
It  seemed  to  be  thought  that  the  day  alike  for  theological 
speculation  and  for  saintly  meditation  had  come  to  an  end ; 
that  the  best  music  of  the  church  was  the  clatter  of  ma- 
chinery, and  her  finest  history  the  tale  of  conversions 
through  the  labors  of  her  workers. 

All  this  was  an  inevitable  reaction  following  the  undue 
diversion  of  church  energy  into  other  fields  than  those  of 
service  in  the  kingdom.  It  was  itself,  however,  an  excess, 
and  one  especially  out  of  keeping  with  the  genius  of  a 
theological  church,  such  as  Presbyterian  churches  always 
have  been.  As  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  said,  in  his  extravagant 
humor,  *'  Rather  let  us  have  an  Inquisition  and  a  little 
blood-letting  than  a  dead  apathy  about  religious  doctrine." 

For  a  time  after  the  reunion  the  trend  of  feeling  was  all 
toward  the  practical.  The  strongest  argument  for  the  re- 
union, indeed,  was  the  opportunity  it  would  furnish  for 
effective  work.  It  did  make  the  Presbyterian  Church  one 
of  the  largest  and  wealthiest  in  America.  The  day  had 
passed  when  the  New  England  States  so  outranked  the 
rest  in  prosperity  that  colleges  and  seminaries  in  the  Middle 

187 


1 88  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

and  even  the  Southern  States  looked  to  her  Christian  mer- 
chants for  substantial  help.  That  help  gave  Hezekiah  Balch 
the  means  of  maintaining  Greenville  College  in  Tennessee, 
and  Dr.  Rice  the  money  to  build  Boston  Hall  in  Union 
Seminary  (Va.).  In  the  industrial  development  which  at- 
tended and  followed  the  war  Presbyterians  shared  at  least 
as  much  as  people  of  any  other  denomination.  This  de- 
velopment was  found  especially  in  districts  which  the 
Scotch-Irish  had  preempted,  and  it  called  into  activity 
their  eminent  practical  gifts.  In  the  cities  the  gain  was 
attended  by  some  loss,  through  people  of  newly  acquired 
wealth  coming  to  think  that  their  fathers'  church,  like 
their  fathers'  homes  and  mode  of  life,  was  not  fine  enough 
for  them.  This,  however,  affected  only  the  less  soHd  ele- 
ments in  the  make-up  of  the  Presbyterian  churches.  The 
growing  responsibilities  of  the  command  of  ampler  means 
fell  more  heavily  upon  them  with  every  year  of  this  period. 
While  no  Christian  church  in  the  world — not  even  the 
Moravian — gives  up  to  the  measure  of  its  ability,  there  has 
been  a  marked  enlargement  of  Christian  giving  in  all  the 
American  churches,  and  the  Presbyterians  have  had  their 
share  of  it.  The  Reformed  Presbyterians  (O.  S.)  stand 
foremost,  with  an  average  contribution  of  nearly  twenty 
dollars  a  member;  and,  indeed,  nothing  less  would  suffice 
to  maintain  their  vigorous  work  in  the  foreign  and  the 
home  field.  But  in  the  exalted  mood  which  attended  re- 
union in  the  Assembly  of  1870,  large  ideas  were  enter- 
tained, and  few  things  roused  more  feeling  than  Dr.  John 
R.  Paxson's  vigorous  castigation  of  the  policy  of  starva- 
tion followed  by  the  old-school  Board  of  Domestic  Mis- 
sions, and  his  praise  of  the  new  school  for  their  greater 
generosity  to  their  home  missionaries.  A  plan  was  brought 
before  that  Assembly  for  a  general  treasury  of  the  church, 
into  which  all  contributions  should  go,  for  distribution  by 


DR.    MCCOSH  AND   SUSTENTATION.  189 

a  Committee  of  Benevolence  and  Finance.  It  was  felt, 
however,  that  this  restriction  of  individual  choice  was  not 
in  keeping  with  the  history  and  genius  of  American  Pres- 
byterianism.  Neither  has  any  notable  success  attended 
the  erection  of  a  sustentation  fund  for  the  support  of  the 
weaker  churches,  somewhat  after  the  model  of  that  of  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland.  It  had  then  been  recently 
copied  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Ireland  in  the  crisis 
of  disestablishment,  which  caused  the  withdrawal  of  the 
regium  donum  at  the  death  of  each  of  the  Presbyterian 
ministers  then  receiving  it.  Dr.  James  McCosh,  who  had 
come  from  Belfast  to  become  president  of  Princeton  Col- 
lege in  1868,  had  shared  in  the  heroic  sacrifices  of  the 
Scottish  disruption.  He  had  done  much  to  prepare,  the 
Irish  church  'for  the  not  less  heroic  sacrifice  by  which  all 
the  ministers,  except  one  or  tw^o,  had  capitalized  their  in- 
terest in  the  regium  donum  and  paid  it  into  a  fund  for  the 
permanent  endowment  of  their  church.  He  hoped  to 
awaken  something  of  the  same  enthusiasm  in  America  in 
proposing  a  similar  sustentation  policy  ;  but  in  the  absence 
of  a  great  emergency,  custom  and  routine  were  too  much 
for  him. 

In  many  of  the  Presbyterian  churches  the  principle  of 
the  tithe  is  widely  accepted  and  practiced  as  a  means  to 
secure  something  more  solid  as  a  basis  of  benevolent  giv- 
ing than  the  emotion  awakened  by  pulpit  appeals.  More 
in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament  would 
be  the  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  Christian  stewardship, 
which  covers  not  a  tenth,  but  the  whole -of  a  man's  posses- 
sions, while  it  regards  all  rightful  forms  of  expenditure  as 
embraced  in  the  service  of  God.  In  very  recent  years,  to 
meet  some  special  emergency,  **  weeks  of  self-denial  "  have 
been  adopted,  all  that  is  saved  by  a  week's  careful  econo- 
mies being  given  to  the  object  designated. 


I90  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

Closely  connected  with  this  growth  of  liberality  has  been 
the  increased  activity  of  women  in  every  kind  of  church 
work.  This  is  a  fact  which  cannot  be  regarded  apart  from 
the  general  tendency  in  American  life  to  give  to  woman 
a  prominence  and  a  freedom  of  action  which  have  been 
denied  her  even  in  Great  Britain,  Fruitful  as  this  tend- 
ency has  been  in  extravagant  demands  for  the  effacement 
of  proper  distinctions  between  the  sexes  and  their  work  in 
life,  it  has  been  right  in  the  main,  as  working  to  the  rec- 
ognition of  woman's  essential  equality  with  man  in  the 
very  line  of  the  general  in'fluence  of  Christianity  upon 
society. 

The  Presbyterian  Women's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
dates  from  the  year  of  the  reunion,  being  anticipated 
by  a  union  movement  in  New  York  in  1861,  and  by  a 
Congregationalist  Women's  Board  in  1868,  and  one  of  the 
Northern  Methodists  in  1869.  In  1878  was  formed  the 
Women's  Executive  Committee  for  Home  Mission  Work, 
with  especial  reference  to  labor  among  the  Southern  freed- 
men.  Nor  have  the  other  Presbyterian  bodies  been  much 
behind.  The  women  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church 
formed  their  Missionary  Society  in  1875,  and  it  was  given 
rank  as  the  Women's  Mission  Board  by  their  General  As- 
sembly in  1888.  In  1878  they  organized  their  Women's 
A_ssociation  for  Benevolent  Work.  The  Reformed  Pres- 
byterians (O.  S.)  also  have  a  Women's  Foreign  Mission 
Board,  and  in  1878  they  outran  all  the  other  Presbyterian 
churches  by  voting  that  women  had  a  right  to  pray  and 
exhort  in  social  meetings  (as  now  do  those  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church),  and,  subsequently,  that  they  might 
be  elected  to  the  office  of  deacon. 

The  presence  and  successful  labors  of  women  in  the 
mission  fields  furnished  a  natural  motive  to  their  sisters  at 
home  to  help  by  prayers  and  gifts.      In  some  cases,  in- 


WOMAN'S    WORK  IN  THE   CHURCH,  191 

deed,  women  had  shown  an  ability  for  independent  action 
not  inferior  to  that  of  men.  Mrs.  Macfarland  was  for  years 
the  only  representative  of  our  Christian  civilization  in  the 
neglected  Territory  of  Alaska,  and  even  presided  over  a 
constitutional  convention  called  by  the  natives  to  set  up 
a  government,  since  the  United  States  had  let  years  pass 
without  taking  any  step  in  that  direction.  Miss  Sue 
McBeth,  in  Idaho,  opened  a  theological  seminary  for  the 
training  of  pastors  for  the  Nez  Perce  Indians,  and  all  the 
churches  in  the  tribe  are  in  charge  of  the  graduates  of  her 
seminary.  Through  her  labor  and  that  of  her  sister  two 
thirds  of  the  tribe  are  in  the  membership  of  the  church, 
and  other  tribes  have  applied  to  them  for  missionaries. 

The  Southern  Presbyterian  Church,  if  we  may  judge  from 
those  who  profess  to  interpret  her  inaction,  regards  all  this 
as  a  departure  from  Christian  discipline,  which  presents  a 
new  obstacle  to  the  ecclesiastical  reunion  of  the  two  As- 
semblies. It  is  said  that  the  millions  secured  to  missions  by 
these  women's  missionary  boards  are  a  poor  compensation 
for  the  injury  done  to  the  family  and  social  life  of  the  na- 
tion by  encouraging  woman  to  usurp  the  rights  and  assume 
the  duties  of  the  superior  sex.^ 

The  attitude  of  that  church  toward  the  freedmen  of  the 
South  has  been  the  most  striking  feature  of  its  home  mis- 
sion policy.  Before  the  war  the  Southern  slaves  very  com- 
monly attended  the  same  churches  with  their  masters, 
being  accommodated  in  the  galleries  of  the  churches.      So 

1  This  Southern  view  of  the  matter  would  probably  be  approved  by  the 
sister-churches  of  Europe.  Dr.  Christlieb,  of  Bonn,  on  his  return  from  the 
Pan-Presbyterian  Council  in  Philadelphia  (1880),  made  an  address  in  which 
he  praised  many  things  he  had  seen  in  America,  but  lamented  "  the  want  of 
a  true  Christian  discipline  "  among  us.  This  he  illustrated  by  an  incident. 
He  was  setting  out  with  his  host  and  hostess  to  attend  an  evening  meeting, 
and  when  tliey  reached  the  doorstep  the  lady  said  to  her  husband,  "  My 
dear,  it's  colder  than  I  supposed.  Won't  you  step  back  and  bring  me  my 
shawl  ?  "     "And,"  reports  good  Dr.  Christlieb,  "  the  man  went  !  " 


192  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

long  as  *'  the  patriarchal  relation  "  existed,  the  white  people 
showed  no  repugnance  to  association  with  their  bondmen 
either  in  church  or  elsewhere.  It  was,  indeed,  their  boast 
that  they  did  not  keep  the  black  man  at  a  distance  to  the 
extent  this  was  done  even  by  his  warmest  friends  in  the 
North.  But  the  free  negro  has  been  quite  another  matter, 
and  the  freedmen  generally  have  been  given  to  understand 
that  they  are  no  longer  welcome  in  the  white  people's 
churches,  but  had  better  form  churches  of  their  own.  A 
new  line  of  social  separation  between  the  races  has  thus 
resulted  from  the  emancipation  and  the  enfranchisement  of 
the  blacks. 

In  most  cases  the  freedmen  did  not  need  much  persua- 
sion. They  naturally  resented  the  control  of  their  former 
masters  in  church  matters,  as  in  politics.  Great  numbers 
of  them,  indeed,  preferred  the  Baptist  order,  simply  be- 
cause it  gave  them  the  most  complete  freedom  from  white 
dominance,  each  church  being  free  to  manage  its  own  affairs 
in  its  own  way.  Many  who  had  been  kept  in  the  Method- 
ist, Lutheran,  Presbyterian,  and  Episcopal  Churches  by 
the  influence  of  their  owners  became  Baptists  as  soon  as 
they  were  free  to  go  ''  to  their  own  company."  This  was 
a  most  unfortunate  change,  as  it  threw  heavy  responsibil- 
ities upon  a  class  which  had  no  training  to  bear  them, 
placed  them  under  spiritual  leaders  who  had  good  reason, 
in  many  cases,  to  labor  against  the  better  education  of 
the  young,  and  sundered  them  from  influences  on  whose 
closeness  and  continuance  their  moral  progress  must  de- 
pend. 

In  these  circumstances  it  was  for  the  interest  both  of 
the  South  and  of  the  nation  that  the  Episcopalian  and 
Presbyterian  bodies  should  maintain  as  close  relations  as 
possible  with  that  part  of  the  colored  population  which 
still  retained  any  affinity  for  those  churches,  and  should 


THE    COLOR-LINE   IN   THE    CHURCH.  193 

thus  encourage  others  to  seek  a  communion  in  which  so- 
briety in  worship  and  moral  discipHne  in  daily  life  would 
be  secured  them.  Unfortunately  neither  of  them  saw  the 
matter  in  this  light.  The  Cumberland  Presbyterians  en- 
couraged their  colored  membership  to  withdraw  and,  in 
1869,  to  organize  themselves  as  a  separate  denomination, 
now  numbering  13,439  members.  The  Southern  Presby- 
terians have  not  taken  this  extreme  step,  but  they  inaugu- 
rated a  policy  of  separation  in  congregation,  Presbytery, 
and  Synod,  which  was  at  once  un-Presbyterian  and  unfort- 
unate. Not  only  did  colored  pastors  fall  out  of  touch 
with  their  white  brethren,  but  the  Presbyteries  organized 
for  them  and  their  churches  covered  too  large  an  area  for 
any  efifective  supervision.  Thus  the  State  of  Texas — a 
country  considerably  larger  than  France,  and  embracing 
one  eleventh  of  the  area  of  the  United  States — saw  all  its 
colored  Presbyterian  churches  in  connection  with  the 
Southern  Assembl}/  placed  under  the  care  of  a  single 
Presbytery.  Five  such  Presbyteries  cover  the  whole 
South,  and  five  are  to  be  united  into  an  African  Synod. 

The  Southern  church,  which  lost  most  of  its  ten  thou- 
sand colored  members  at  the  close  of  the  war — having  but 
121 1  in  1890 — has  made  some  honest  but  not  extraordi- 
nary efforts  to  recover  the  ground  and  to  do  her  share  in 
the  Christian  training  of  a  needy  people  left  at  her  doors. 
In  no  year  have  her  people  given  her  $10,000  to  spend 
for  this  purpose,  and  many  of  her  wealthier  congregations 
refuse  to  add  the  Executive  Committee  on  Colored  Evan- 
gelization (established  in  1891)  to  the  number  for  which 
they  take  collections.  Since  1877  she  has  had  an  ably 
conducted  institute  for  training  colored  ministers  at  Tus- 
caloosa, Ala.,  but  its  work  has  been  crippled  for  want  of 
adequate  support. 

A   joint   conference   on   cooperation   in  this  work  was 


194  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

asked  by  the  Southern  Assembly  in  1887.  It  was  con- 
tinued afterward  at  the  request  of  the  other  Assembly. 
An  agreement  was  reached  in  1894  to  unify  the  work  by 
transferring  it  to  a  joint  board,  in  which  the  Southern  As- 
sembly would  constitute  the  minority,  as  having  much  the 
smaller  colored  membership  and  the  lesser  monetary  in- 
terest. This,  however,  was  rejected  by  that  Assembly, 
and,  indeed,  would  not  have  furnished  a  satisfactory  solu- 
tion of  the  problem.  The  churches  organized  within  the 
national  Assembly's  Synods  of  Atlanta  and  of  Texas 
among  the  freedmen — with  16,850  members  in  1890 — are 
nearly  as  exclusively  colored  churches  by  force  of  circum- 
stances as  those  under  care  of  the  Southern  Assembly  are 
by  choice  and  policy.  If  the  two  bodies  are  to  remain 
apart,  it  would  have  been  far  better  to  have  transferred  all 
these  churches  to  the  care  of  the  Southern  Assembly,  if 
this  could  have  been  done  with  assurance  that  "  the  color- 
line  "  is  to  disappear  out  of  the  house  of  God. 

In  other  fields  of  home  missionary  labor  the  American 
churches  of  all  names  have  been  more  active  and  zealous 
since  the  war  than  ever  before.  A  constantly  increasing 
responsibility  has  been  thrown  upon  them  by  the  influx 
of  millions  of  immigrants  from  the  continent  of  Europe. 
Many  of  these,  it  is  true,  naturally  find  their  home  in  the 
Reformed,  Lutheran,  and  other  churches  in  which  they 
held  their  membership  before  leaving  home.  Others,  how- 
ever, have  been  careless  of  church  connections,  or  have  be- 
come so  through  emigration.  Many  have  been  alienated 
from  the  church  through  its  connection  with  the  state  in 
Europe,  even  if  they  have  not  been  infected  with  the  crude 
materialism  which  is  the  philosophy  of  European  socialism 
and  anarchism.  Multitudes,  especially  of  Roman  Catho- 
lics, *'  never  darken  the  door  of  a  church  "  after  coming  to 
America,  and  allow  their  children  to  grow  up  in  practical 


GRANT'S  INDIAN  POLICY.  1 95 

paganism.  Among  these  classes  the  American  churches 
are  laboring  for  the  salvation  of  the  Republic  from  the  ir- 
religion  and  social  disorder  which  threaten  the  Old  World. 

Presbyterian  work  has  been  mostly  among  the  peoples 
who  held  by  the  Reformed  Church  in  Europe — Dutch, 
Bohemians,  Swiss,  and  especially  the  Germans  of  the 
lower  Rhine  valley.  To  secure  workers  among  these 
last,  two  theological  seminaries  have  been  established : 
that  at  Dubuque,  in  i860,  by  members  of  two  old-school 
Presbyteries — Dubuque,  la.,  and  Dana,  Wis. ;  and  that  at 
Newark,  N.  J.,  by  the  new-school  Presbytery  of  Newark. 

The  announcement  by  President  Grant,  in  his  inaugural 
of  1868,  of  a  policy  by  which  the  churches  would  be  in- 
vited to  cooperate  with  the  national  government  in  the 
civilization  and  Christianization  of  the  Indians,^  excited  a 
very  general  interest  in  that  work,  and  led  to  very  exten- 
sive plans  for  their  education.  Of  the  Protestant  churches 
only  a  few  can  be  said  to  have  really  embraced  their  op- 
portunity, the  others  either  stopping  with  proposals  or 
contenting  themselves  with  feeble  and  ill-sustained  efforts. 
Presbyterians  were  the  first  to  enter  the  neglected  terri- 
tory of  Alaska  with  missionary  work,  and  they  have  had 
a  splendid  share  in  the  transformation  which  has  reduced 
steadily  the  quota  of  pagans  among  our  Indian  tribes. 
Two  laymen  of  the  church,  Captain  Pratt  and  General 
Armstrong,  by  founding  and  conducting  the   great  gov- 


1  The  Grant  policy  seems  likely  to  be  set  aside  as  regards  its  main  feature, 
through  the  jealousy  which  has  been  excited  by  the  greater  extent  and  success 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  schools  established  under  it.  The  hierarchy  of  that 
church  were  in  no  way  friendly  to  such  labors,  and  gave  them  but  little  official 
support.  Thanks,  however,  to  the  persistence  of  a  single  priest  and  his  co- 
adjutors, mainly  laymen,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  entered  largely  upon 
the  fields  neglected  or  abandoned  by  Protestants.  Hence  the  outcry,  chiefly 
from  denominations  which  have  done  nothing,  for  the  withdrawal  of  govern- 
ment aid  to  mission  schools  on  the  Indian  reservations.  To  this  outcry  the 
Episcopal  General  Convention  and  our  own  General  Assembly  have  yielded. 


196  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

ernment  schools  at  Carlisle,  Pa.,  and  Fortress  Monroe, 
Va.,  have  rendered  a  unique  service  in  the  work  of  assimi- 
lating our  Indian  wards  to  the  rest  of  the  nation.  At  the 
same  time  a  fresh  interest  has  awakened  among  the  Pres- 
byterians of  that  region  in  the  remnant  of  the  great  Iroquois 
confederacy  in  central  New  York,  a  large  part  of  which 
still  cherishes  pagan  practices  and  superstitions.  All  these 
Indian  missions  have  been  transferred  to  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions,  after  having  been  long  classed  as  belonging  to  the 
foreign  field.  To  the  same  board  belongs  the  work  among 
the  resident  Chinese  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  elsewhere, 
which  has  been  proportionally  more  fruitful  than  the  mis- 
sions to  the  Chinese  at  home. 

In  the  conduct  of  home  mission  work  generally  there 
has  been  an  approximation  to  the  method  of  personal 
supervision,  for  which  Dr.  Fowler  invoked  the  authority 
of  Knox  and  Melville.  Men  like  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson 
render  a  service  of  general  oversight  which  is  not  less 
Scriptural  than  is  the  supervision  by  boards.  Another 
gain  has  been  in  the  diminution  of  the  waste  of  men  and 
money  through  the  maintenance  of  too  many  churches 
in  young  communities.  The  reunion  did  much  to  abate 
the  evil  by  consolidating  weak  congregations  of  the  two 
branches.  Something  more  has  been  done  through  an 
understanding  with  the  Congregationalists  that  where 
either  body  has  preempted  any  new  field  the  other  will 
wait  a  reasonable  time  before  establishing  a  second  church. 
The  evil,  however,  is  only  abated,  and  it  remains  one  of 
the  scandals  of  our  divided  Christendom.  It  is  estimated 
that  fully  half  the  money  raised  for  home  missionary  work 
is  wasted  in  **  holding  the  fort  "  for  sectarian  ends,  without 
achieving  a  real  gain  for  the  cause  of  Christianity.  Worse 
still  is  the  waste  in  this  way  of  personal  force,  often  ani- 
mated by  the  loftiest  enthusiasm  for  the  kingdom  of  God. 


SCHOOLS  AND    COLLEGES.  igj 

Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists  no  longer  are  dis- 
tinguished from  other  Christians  in  America  by  their  be- 
hef  in  the  school,  the  college,  and  the  theological  seminary 
as  indispensable  adjuncts  of  home  mission  work.  All  our 
Protestant  bodies,  even  to  Friends  and  Dunkers,  have  come 
to  accept  their  view.  Ignorance  is  no  longer  valued  as  a 
preparation  for  ministerial  labor.  Still  more  noteworthy 
has  been  the  conversion  of  the  general  public  to  the  belief 
in  the  higher  education.  The  university  system  of  train- 
ing, imported  into  America  by  the  churches,  and  sustained 
by  them  through  an  era  of  distrust  and  contempt,  is  now 
accepted  as  the  necessary  complement  of  the  public-school 
system,  especially  in  the  newer  States.  Through  this 
change  and  the  generous  gifts  of  private  individuals  for 
the  founding  of  institutions  outside  of  her  control,  the 
church's  relation  to  the  higher  education,  as  well  as  the 
lower,  has  become  less  intimate  and  effective  than  it  once 
was. 

In  the  field  of  intermediate  schools  and  that  of  colleges 
and  universities,  the  churches  show  no  disposition  to  aban- 
don their  activity,  as  they  feel  that  the  new  universities 
•founded  by  the  States,  or  by  individuals  indifferent  to  the 
Christian  influence  on  education,  cannot  be  expected  to 
furnish  candidates  for  the  ministry  in  sufficient  numbers 
and  fitly  prepared  for  the  theological  seminary.  The 
Presbyterians,  though  no  longer  holding  the  same  relative 
position  in  the  higher  education,  still  hold  their  own  and 
steadily  extend  their  work.  At  the  opening  of  the  century 
there  were  but  four  institutions  of  the  higher  grade  under 
their  control.  These  had  increased  to  more  than  a  dozen 
at  the  time  'of  the  division  of  1837.  They  now  number 
some  fifty,  ranging  from  the  long-established  and  richly 
endowed  university  in  the  East  to  the  little  Western  col- 
lege, which  is  no  poorer  than  the  university  once  was,  and 


198  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

has  reasonable  hope  of  becoming  as  rich  and  prosperous 
through  **  growing  up  with  the  country."  As  these  weaker 
colleges  have  been  placed  at  a  disadvantage  by  the  com- 
petition of  institutions  of  the  other  class,  the  General  As- 
sembly of  1883,  after  a  discussion  extending  over  several 
years,  estabHshed  a  Board  of  Aid  for  Colleges,  which  has 
secured  them  valuable  and  much-needed  assistance. 

In  the  field  of  primary  education  there  has  been  a  more 
general  acquiescence  in  the  transfer  of  the  work  to  State 
agencies,  as  being  alone  able  to  cope  with  the  magnitude 
of  the  public  needs.  At  the  same  time  very  little  care 
has  been  exercised  to  secure  from  the  state's  schools  that 
amount  and  kind  of  religious  teaching  which  their  char- 
acter permits  of.  There  is  a  strong  and  growing  party 
which  seeks  to  secularize  entirely  the  teaching  in  the  pub- 
lic schools,  in  the  delusive  expectation  that  this  will  make 
them  less  objectionable  to  Roman  Catholics.  It  is  rein- 
forced by  those  denominations,  such  as  the  Baptists,  who 
regard  the  state  as  a  purely  secular  institution  having  no 
religious  duties. 

Naturally  this  secularist  policy  does  not  commend  itself 
to  consistent  Presbyterians.  In  the  two.  decades  before 
the  war  there  was  a  movement  among  the  old-school  Pres- 
byterians to  establish  a  system  of  parochial  schools.  The 
General  Assembly  of  1844  advised  every  congregation, 
which  had  the  ability,  to  set  up  a  school  of  its  own,  and 
directed  the  Board  of  Publication  to  prepare  the  necessary 
text-books.  The  pressure  of  other  matters  cooperated 
with  the  inertia  of  the  churches  to  frustrate  the  plan, 
which  ceased  to  be  prominent  after  the  resignation  of  Dr. 
Cortlandt  van  Rensselaer  from  the  secretaryship  of  the 
Board  of  Education  in  i860.  His  successor  in  that  office 
let  the  matter  drop.  It  was  the  assured  belief  of  Dr.  A.  A. 
Hodge   that   it   would    come    forward    again.      In   recent 


PAROCHIAL   SCHOOLS.  1 99 

years  the  Synod  of  New  York  made  an  earnest  effort  to 
counteract  the  secularization  of  the  schools  within  its 
bounds.  It  called  a  convention  of  Christians  of  all  classes 
to  this  end,  but  accomplished  nothing,  through  the  indiffer- 
ence and  even  hostility  of  the  Christian  people  generally 
to  the  purpose.  The  rapid  increase  of  crime  which  has 
gone  hand  in  hand  with  the  secularization  of  education 
may  awaken  them  roughly  to  the  need  discerned  by  the 
Synod. 

The  position  taken  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
matter  was  defined  by  the  reunion  Assembly  of  1870: 

**  We  should  regard  the  successful  attempt  to  expel  all 
religious  instruction  and  influence  from  our  public  schools 
as  an  evil  of  the  first  magnitude.  Nor  do  we  see  how  this 
can  be  done  without  inflicting  a  deadly  wound  upon  the 
intellectual  and  moral  life  of  the  nation.  .  .  .  We  look 
upon  the  state  as  an  ordinance  of  God,  and  not  a  mere 
creature  of  the  popular  will ;  and,  under  its  high  responsi- 
bility to  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  world,  we  hold  it  to  be 
both  its  right  and  bounden  duty  to  educate  its  children  in 
those  elementary  principles  of  knowledge  and  virtue  which 
are  essential  to  its  own  security  and  well-being.  The  union 
of  church  and  state  is  indeed  against  our  American  theory 
and  constitutions  of  government ;  but  the  most  intimate 
union  of  the  state  with  the  saving  and  conservative  forces 
of  Christianity  is  one  of  the  oldest  customs  of  the  coun- 
try, and  has  always  ranked  as  a  vital  article  of  our  political 
faith." 

Another  adjunct  to  home  mission  work  has  been  that  of 
the  Board  of  Publication.  No  agency  of  the  church  has 
been  subjected  to  more  criticism  than  this.  The  need  of 
any  church  agency  for  the  publication  of  religious  litera- 
ture has  been  questioned,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  private 
firms  do  so  much  to  supply  good  books,  and  in  a  form  and 


200  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

of  a  character  suited  to  the  public  taste.  More  forcible,  I 
think,  has  been  the  objection  to  the  quality  of  the  publica- 
tions of  the  board.  Our  age  grows  daily  more  exacting 
in  the  matter  of  literary  excellence  and  human  interest  in 
the  books  it  reads.  A  church  board  of  publication  is  apt 
to  follow  a  policy  of  caution  which  narrows  the  range  of  its 
work  and  results  in  a  dull  uniformity  in  its  issues.  That 
this  can  be  avoided  has  been  shown  in  recent  years  by 
several  agencies  of  this  kind  on  either  side  of  the  ocean. 
But  it  did  characterize  the  lists  of  the  Presbyterian  board 
to  an  extent  which  led  the  average  reader  to  avoid  any 
book  bearing  its  imprint.  Through  recent  changes  of  pol- 
icy and  of  management  this  evil  bids  fair  to  be  removed. 

Formerly  the  board  employed  agents  merely  to  carry 
on  the  sale  of  its  books,  but  latterly  it  directed  them  to 
seek  to  establish  Sunday-schools  in  neglected  districts. 
For  this  reason  in  1887  the  General  Assembly  enlarged  the 
title  of  the  board  to  include  this  work,  and  appointed  a  sec- 
retary to  take  charge  of  it.  It  also  has  placed  the  statistics  of 
Sunday-school  membership  and  contributions  on  the  same 
footing  as  those  of  the  congregations.  This  has  contrib- 
uted to  the  extension  of  Sunday-school  teaching,  but  it 
would  be  an  unfortunate  result  if  it  tended  to  draw  any 
deep  hne  of  distinction  between  church  and  school.  The 
development  of  the  latter  has  been  sound  and  safe  just  in 
so  far  as  it  tends  to  closer  relations  with  the  congregation. 
The  goal  will  be  reached  when  the  Sunday-school  is  recog- 
nized as  the  congregation  in  session  for  a  specific  purpose, 
under  direction  of  the  pastor  and  session,  and  entitled  to 
draw  upon  the  treasury  of  the  congregation  for  its  neces- 
sary expenses.  On  that  footing  every  member  of  the  con- 
gregation will  find  his  place  in  the  school,  and  the  teach- 
ing (or  *'  doctrine  ")  of  the  apostolic  church  will  resume 
its  place  beside  the  preaching  of  the  Word. 


MISSIONARY  ADVANCE.  201 

In  the  field  of  foreign  missions  all  the  Presbyterian 
bodies  have  made  progress  since  the  war.  The  union  of 
1858  brought  under  the  United  Presbyterian  Assembly 
the  Associate  Church's  mission  at  Sialkot,  in  India  (1844), 
and  that  of  the  Associate  Reformed  Church  to  the  Copts 
of  Egypt  (1853),  both  highly  successful  enterprises.  The 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Synod  (O.  S.)  has  a  well-sustained 
mission  work  in  Syria,  and  the  General  Synod  (N.  S.), 
since  the  loss  of  its  Presbytery  of  Saharanpoor  through  the 
troubles  of  1868-69  (p.  185),  has  taken  steps  to  renew  its 
labors  in  the  same  country.  The  fields  already  occupied 
by  the  old-school  Assembly,  and  those  ceded  by  the  Amer- 
ican Board  in  187 1,  have  been  enlarged,  and  additions 
made  to  their  number.  As  in  many  cases  Presbyterian 
missionaries  are  working  in  the  foreign  field  side  by  side 
with  those  of  sister-churches  in  other  lands,  or  those  of 
American  churches  w4iose  difi'erences  sink  into  insignifi- 
cance in  comparison  with  the  great  problem  of  the  com- 
mon labor,  it  has  been  thought  best  to  effect  ecclesiastical 
consolidation.  Thus  in  India  and  China  a  single  Presby- 
terian Synod  is  proposed  for  each  country.  In  Japan  and 
in  Brazil  consolidation  has  been  accelerated  by  the  desire 
of  the  native  churches  to  emerge  out  of  the  mission  stage 
of  existence  and  to  assume  the  self-direction  which  is  the 
right  of  every  national  church.  The  United  Church  of 
Christ  in  Japan,  thus  organized  of  the  Reformed  and  Pres- 
byterian missions,  is  the  strongest  Christian  body  in  the 
empire,  has  drawn  up  its  own  confession  of  faith,  and 
governs  itself,  while  enjoying  the  advice  of  the  council  of 
missionaries.  Such  unions  help  to  take  away  the  reproach 
of  Christian  disunion,  w-hich  nowhere  is  seen  in  its  ugliness 
so  distinctly  as  on  the  mission  field. 

In  other  fields  the  relations  of  the  Presbyterian  churches 
to   the   sister- churches   of    other    lands    have    been   most 


202  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

friendly  and  harmonious.  American  help  has  been  ex- 
tended to  the  struggling  churches  of  the  Reformed  order 
and  faith  in  Italy,  Bohemia,  and  Hungary.  In  1876, 
largely  through  the  labors  of  Drs.  James  McCosh  and 
Philip  Schaff,  there  was  formed  an  "  Alliance  of  the  Re- 
formed Churches  throughout  the  World  holding  the  Pres- 
byterian System,"  with  provision  for  holding  an  interna- 
tional council  once  in  four  years.  It  embraces  some  sixty 
churches,  who  have  given  their  official  adherence  to  it. 
The  second  of  its  councils  was  held  in  Philadelphia  in 
1880,  and  the  fifth  in  Toronto.  Thus  far  it  has  accom- 
plished little  more  than  the  promotion  of  international  and 
interdenominational  comity  among  the  churches.  The 
efiforts  of  Dr.  Schaflf  to  secure  through  it  the  preparation 
of  a  consensus  of  the  Reformed  churches,  as  a  sort  of  ecu- 
menical creed  which  should  supersede  the  several  confes- 
sions of  the  separate  churches,  did  not  prove  successful. 
It  met  with  opposition  from  both  quarters,  the  liberals  of 
Europe  thinking  it  too  long,  and  the  conservatives  of  Ire- 
land and  America  too  short  and  vague. 

Nor  has  it  been  found  possible  to  satisfy  all  the  churches 
which  at  first  accepted  membership  in  the  Alliance.  The 
psalm-singers  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  felt  them- 
selves aggrieved  by  the  use  of  uninspired  hymns  at  some 
of  its  sessions  and  the  celebration  of  the  communion.  For 
this  reason  the  General  Assembly  of  this  church  withdrew 
from  the  Alliance  for  a  time,  because  of  the  breach  of  the 
original  agreement  that  the  meetings  would  confine  them- 
selves to  the  Psalms  in  praise.  But  on  receiving  fresh  as- 
surance on  this  point,  this  Assembly  appointed  delegates 
to  Toronto. 

Within  this  very  church,  however,  innovation  has  played 
its  part.  The  Seceder  and  Covenanter  Churches  in  earlier 
times  were  entirely  agreed  in  rejecting  the  use  of  instru- 


INSTRUMENTAL   MUSIC.  203 

mental  music,  clearly  as  its  use  is  prescribed  in  the  Psalms, 
which  the  church — in  their  view — is  required  to  use  till 
the  end  of  time.  Partly  the  sense  of  this  incongruity,  and 
partly  the  desire  to  bring  this  part  of  worship  into  har- 
mony with  modern  culture,  caused  a  restlessness  under  the 
rule.  At  last  in  1881  the  General  Assembly  was  induced 
to  submit  the  question  to  the  Presbyteries  in  overture,  the 
rules  requiring  its  adoption  not  only  by  a  majority  of  the 
Presbyteries,  but  by  a  majority  of  their  individual  members 
taken  in  the  aggregate.  The  result  was  its  approval  by  a 
small  majority  of  the  actual  voters,  but  just  one  short  of  a 
majority  of  the  whole  number  present  when  the  vote  was 
taken.  The  opponents  and  the  friends  of  the  proposal 
both  claimed  a  victory.  The  General  Assembly  of  1882, 
acting  upon  precedents  already  established,  decided  that 
the  overture  had  been  adopted.  It  declared,  however, 
that  the  action  taken  did  not  authorize  the  introduction  of 
instruments,  but  merely  declared  that  *'  there  is  not  suffi- 
cient Bible  authority  for  an  absolutely  exclusive  rule  on 
the  subject."  This  deliverance,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, satisfied  neither  party.  The  conservatives  found 
the  previous  testimony  of  the  church  set  aside,  with  the 
assurance  that  no  change  in  practice  would  follow  it.  The 
progressives  found  themselves  virtually  forbidden  to  do 
what  the  church  had  declared  was  not  contrary  to  the 
Word  of  God.  While  most  of  the  congregations  followed 
the  policy  of  inaction,  a  few  proceeded  to  employ  musical 
instruments,  first  in  the  Sunday-school  and  then  in  con- 
gregational worship.  This  produced  an  agitation  on  the 
other  side  which  ^at  times  threatened  a  division  of  the 
church,  the  minority  holding  conventions  to  agitate  against 
innovations. 

In  something  of  the  same  spirit  of  accommodation  to 
the  needs  of  the  time  was  the  revision  of  the  old  Psalm- 


204  ^^^   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Cum-,  xv. 

book  of  1649,  which  this  denomination  adopted  in  1870. 
This  also  encountered  resistance,  but  sporadic  only  and 
personal.  The  result  is  certainly  '*  more  smoothe,"  if  not 
**  more*  agreeable  to  the  Originall  Texte,"  than  the  older 
version.  But  a  lover  of  old  English  poetry  might  depre- 
cate many  of  the  alterations  in  a  version  beloved  of  Burns, 
Campbell,  Scott,  Irving,  Carlyle,  and  Archdeacon  Hare, 
on  finding 

Strength's  knots  and  gnarls  all  pared  away, 
And  varnish  in  their  places. 

The  problems  of  Presbyterian  reunion  were  freely  dis- 
cussed in  various  conferences  between  separate  churches 
at  this  time,  but  to  no  end.  The  conference  set  on  foot 
with  the  United  Presbyterians  by  the  General  Assembly 
of  1870  brought  to  light  nothing  but  the  obstacles  of  which 
everybody  knew.  That  ministers  and  churches  of  that 
and  the  smaller  Presbyterian  bodies  are  attracted  toward 
the  reunited  church  is  evidenced  by  transfers  of  both  to 
the  care  of  the  General  Assembly.  Thus  in  1889  the 
United  Presbyterian  Presbytery  of  Detroit,  by  a  vote  of 
two  to  one,  decided  to  unite  with  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
leaving  the  minority — after  a  loss  of  six  ministers  and  eight 
churches — to  continue  the  existence  of  the  Presbytery. 
But  these  very  transfers  only  serve  to  put  off  the  day  of 
reunion,  by  strengthening  relatively  the  conservative  ele- 
ments they  leave  behind  them. 

In  the  national  Assembly  the  extension  of  overtures  to 
the  Southern  Assembly  has  been  frequently  pressed  by  a 
party  which  seemed  to  be  bent  on  reunion  at  any  price,  not 
excepting  the  church's  self-respect.  Much  was  expected  by 
them  from  the  joint  celebration  of  the  centenary  of  the  first 
General  Assembly  in  1888,  when  the  Southern  Assembly 
adjourned  from  Baltimore  to  meet  the  other  Assembly  sit- 


CHRISTIAN   UNION.  205 

ting  in  Philadelphia.  The  Southern  speakers,  however, 
while  eloquent  enough  as  to  the  church's  past,  had  noth- 
ing comforting  to  say  of  the  future.  Six  years  later  their 
Assembly  flatly  refused  to  appoint  a  Conference  Commit- 
tee on  Reunion,  at  the  request  of  the  national  Assembly. 
What  probably  encourages  the  hope  of  reunion  is  the  atti- 
tude of  attention  and  criticism  which  the  Southern  church 
occupies  toward  the  national  Assembly.  It  never  has  suc- 
ceeded in  regarding  it  as  a  body  to  which  it  owes  no  more 
than  the  interdenominational  courtesies  due  to  a  separate 
church.  The  severed  limb  feels  its  indestructible  relation 
to  the  body. 

During  this  period  the  Presbyterian  churches  were  more 
or  less  affected  by  the  agitation  for  a  general  union  of  all 
Christians  on  the  basis  of  their  common  beliefs.  As  early 
as  1867,  indeed,  the  Rev.  William  McCune,  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church,  set  on  foot  an  agitation  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  all  lines  of  sectarian  division  between  Protestants, 
and  conducted  it  with  an  energy  which  brought  him  into 
conflict  with  his  own  church.  Its  General  Assembly  of 
that  year  had  some  difficulty  in  deciding  that  his  conten- 
tion involved  "  fundamental  error,"  but  it  inflicted  upon 
him  a  suspension,  which  led  to  his  withdrawal  from  the 
church.  He  afterward  found  a  home  for  a  short  time  in 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  but  finally  withdrew  from  it. 

Twice  during  this  period  these  churches  were  approached 
from  without  with  invitations  to  return  to  "  Catholic  unity." 
The  first  came  from  Pope  Pius  IX.  in  1870,  on  the  eve  of 
the  holding  of  the  Council  of  the  Vatican  which  put  the 
copestone  on  the  edifice  of  papal  authority.  It  was  a  re- 
quest to  the  Protestant  world  to  embrace  the  opportunity 
offered  by  this  reunion  of  the  true  church  to  put  an  end 
to  the  schisms  and  divisions  which  the  Reformation  had 
introduced.     Most  of  the  Protestant  bodies  made  no  reply, 


206  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

but  the  General  Assembly  sent  a  courteous  but  decided 
refusal.  As  this  was  written  by  Dr.  John  Hall,  there  was 
no  want  of  emphasis  in  its  Protestantism.^ 

The  other  invitadon  came  from  the  House  of  Bishops 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  who  addressed  to  the 
other  denominations  of  our  American  Christendom  a  plea 
for  reunion  upon  a  basis  which  they  defined,  without  de- 
fining the  method  by  which  it  should  be  accomplished, 
whether  by  confederation  or  consolidation.  The  address 
was  notable  as  the  first  official  recognition  from  that  quar- 
ter of  the  existence  of  other  Christian  churches  in  Amer- 
ica. Since  the  beginning  of  the  Oxford  movement,  and  even 
before  it,  American  Episcopahans  had  been  making  their 
appeal  to  individual  Christians  and  ministers  of  other 
denominations,  and  not  without  success,  as  their  church 
growth  had  been  more  largely  effected  in  this  way  than 
by  conquests  from  the  world.  Rapid  as  had  been  their 
increase  in  the  cities  and  towns,  however,  it  gave  and  gives 
no  promise  of  their  absorbing  or  even  outnumbering  the 
other  churches.  The  hope  some  of  them  cherished  that 
their  church  would  prove  the  Aaron's  rod  which  would 
swallow  all  the  others  is  not  likely  to  be  realized,  and  the 
less  so  since  other  denominations  have  had  the  wisdom  to 
adjust  their  worship,  architecture,  and  the  like  to  the  de- 
mands of  an  age  which  requires  beauty  and  detests  sor- 
didness.     The  address  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  therefore, 

1  A  prominent  American  organ  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  in  notic- 
ing the  fact  that  such  an  answer  had  been  sent,  said  of  the  Presbyterians: 
"Their  intellectual  and  moral  worth,  their  philanthropy  and  zeal  for  God, 
the  value  of  many  most  excellent  works  which  they  have  written  in  defense 
of  the  divine  revelation,  we  fully  appreciate.  That  great  numbers  have  been 
and  are  in  the  spiritual  communion  of  the  Catholic  Church  we  sincerely  hope. 
We  desire  that  the  schism  which  has  separated  them  from  our  visible  com- 
munion may  be  healed,  not  only  for  their  own  spiritual  good,  but  also  that 
the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States  may  be  strengthened  by  the  acces- 
sion of  that  intellectual  and  religious  vigor  which  such  a  great  mass  of  bap- 
tized Christians  contains  in  itself." 


THE  HISTORIC  EPISCOPATE.  20/ 

indicates  a  growth  of  practical  good  sense  which  is  full  of 
promise. 

The  three  essentials  to  Christian  unity  which  the  address 
prescribes  are  the  Catholic  creeds,  the  two  sacraments  ad- 
ministered with  the  essential  forms  of  words,  and  the  "  his- 
toric episcopate."  The  first  two  present  no  difficulty  to 
Presbyterians.  The  third  involves  an  assumption  in  favor 
of  diocesan  episcopacy,  to  which  they  cannot  assent  with- 
out shutting  their  eyes  to  the  facts  of  church  history. 
Recent  investigation  has  shown  that  the  word  episcopos 
came  into  the  use  of  the  church  from  the  sect  of  the  Stoics, 
who  employed  it  to  designate  a  man  who  took  a  personal 
interest  in  the  moral  well-being  of  his  neighbors.  It  was 
thus  an  approach  to  the  Christian  conception  of  the  pastor- 
ate or  "  cure  of  souls,"  and  was  fitly  employed  to  designate 
the  minister  of  the  Christian  congregation.  Its  original 
sense  still  lingers  in  the  pastoral  staff,  or  crosier,  borne  by 
the  bishops  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  Churches.  It  lost  this 
sense  when  the  assimilation  of  the  church's  polity  to  that 
of  the  Roman  Empire  took  the  episcopos  (bishop)  from  his 
paroikia  or  parish  (district  around  a  house  of  worship)  and 
gave  him  rule  over  a  civil  dioikesis.  It  has  less  of  the  orig- 
inal sense  the  farther  we  come  from  the  original  home  of 
Christianity — less  in  the  Latin  Church  than  in  the  Greek, 
less  in  the  AngHcan  than  in  the  Latin,  less  in  the  Episcopal 
Church  of  America  than  in  the  mother-church  of  England. 
With  each  remove  the  dioceses  grow  larger  and  the  work 
of  the  bishop  less  pastoral,  until  we  see  Dr.  Kinsolving  de- 
scribed as  "  Bishop  of  Texas,"  a  region  larger  than  France. 
It  is  the  fewness  of  the  bishops  in  the  Episcopal  Church 
that  repels  Presbyterians.  To  parochial  episcopacy,  even 
as  described  in  the  Ignatian  Epistles,  they  have  no  manner 
of  objection. 

The  address  of  the  bishops  would  have  excited  much 


208  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

less  attention  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  if  it  had  not 
found  an  earnest  supporter  in  Dr.  Charles  W.  Shields,  of 
Princeton  College.  He  even  went  beyond  the  terms  of 
the  address  and  held  up  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  as 
the  basis  for  a  reunion  of  all  English-speaking  Christians. 
While  there  has  been  a  marked  increase  in  the  desire  for 
liturgic  worship  among  American  as  among  British  Pres- 
byterians, Dr.  Shields  cannot  be  said  to  have  carried  many 
with  him  in  his  plea.  As  Professor  Briggs  has  said,  that 
book  does  not  meet  the  needs  of  our  time  and  land  as 
well  as  they  might  be  met  by  a  work  which  should  draw 
freely  on  other  sources — Greek  and  Latin,  Lutheran  and 
Reformed,  as  well  as  Anglican.  Nor  do  the  House  of 
Bishops,  or  the  bishops  of  the  whole  Anglican  communion, 
met  in  conference  at  Lambeth,  in  adopting  the  proposal  of 
the  American  bishops  as  their  own,  suggest  the  adoption 
of  the  Prayer-book  as  a  prerequisite  to  communion. 

Thus  far  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  declined  to  enter 
upon  any  discussion  of  the  proposal  until  there  has  been 
an  acknowledgment  of  the  validity  of  Presbyterian  ordina- 
tion by  the  Episcopal  Church,  as  in  the  earlier  days  of  the 
Reformed  Church  of  England.  The  refusal  is  natural,  but 
not  logical,  as  the  House  of  Bishops  may  be  in  possession 
of  further  light  on  that  subject. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THEOLOGICAL  AND   LITERARY   LIBE   SINCE    1870. 

Important  as  are  the  works  of  Christian  Hberahty  and 
of  evangehzation,  it  is  not  possible  for  the  Presbyterian 
Church  to  find  in  them  the  full  scope  for  her  vocation. 
She  is,  by  God's  calling,  a  theological  church,  set  to  wit- 
ness for  the  great  truths  of  God's  grace  in  providence  and 
redemption.  Her  theologians  are  not  the  least  among  her 
jewels,  and  no  others  of  her  sons  exert  so  great  an  influ- 
ence outside  her  own  bounds. 

Several  of  her  ablest  passed  to  their  reward  in  the  period 
we  are  now  considering. 

The  Southern  church  had  lost  its  greatest  theologian  by 
the  death  of  Dr.  Jas.  H.  Thornwell  still  earlier,  in  1862.  He 
had  gone  to  visit  his  son,  who  had  been  wounded  in  the 
Confederate  service,  when  death  came  to  close  a  life  rich 
in  both  pastoral  and  professional  work. 

The  year  1877  saw  Dr.  Henry  B.  Smith  gathered  to  his 
fathers,  without  j^ver  having  had  the  leisure  to  do  justice 
to  his  thought.  The  inadequacy  and  uncertainty  of  his 
salary  as  a  professor  compelled  him  to  spend  in  secondary 
labors  the  energies  which  should  have  been  given  to  his 
proper  work. 

In  this  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  was  more  fortunate,  in  that 
he  could  devote  the  leisure  of  eight  years  to  the  elabora- 
tion of  his  ''Systematic  Theology"  (1871-73).      It  used 

209 


2IO  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

to  be  said  that  he  and  Professor  Park,  of  Andover,  were 
each  waiting  for  the  other  to  pubhsh  his  system,  with  crit- 
ical intention.  Before  the  w^hole  work  was  before  the 
pubhc  the  semi-centenary  of  his  inauguration  as  professor 
occurred.  Of  the  three  thousand  students  he  had  trained 
for  the  ministry,  a  goodly  number  gathered  around  him 
with  grateful  congratulations,  and  greetings  came  from 
other  churches  to  the  veteran  professor.  In  1873  the 
Assembly,  hearing  that  he  was  in  Washington,  adjourned 
thither  from  Baltimore  to  wait  on  him.  In  1878  he  passed 
away,  full  of  years  and  of  good  works.  His  "  Systematic 
Theology  "  probably  exceeds  any  other  body  of  divinity 
in  the  language  in  the  reach  of  its  influence. 

Two  years  before  his  death  his  still  greater  son,  Dr. 
Archibald  Alexander  Hodge,  was  called  to  Princeton  from 
the  Alleghany  Seminary,  as  assistant  and  successor  to  his 
father  in  the  chair  of  didactic  theology.  While  inferior  to 
his  father  in  serenity  and  judicial  temper,  he  was  a  man  of 
richer  and  more  complex  nature,  larger  experience  of  the 
world,  more  extensive  historical  learning,  and  greater 
speculative  originality.  His  playful,  sometimes  extrava- 
gant humor  shaped  his  thought  into  epigrammatic  form 
and  a  conversational  audacity  which  often  startled  and 
offended  weak  brethren.  Under  all  lay  a  fervency  of  spir- 
itual devotion  which  at  times  suggested  the  old  mystics. 
His  ''Outlines  of  Theology  "  (i860  and  1878)  and  his  ''Pop- 
ular Lectures  on  Theological  Themes  "  (1887)  are  notable 
books ;  but  nothing  he  has  written  gives  an  adequate  im- 
pression of  his  inspiring  individuality.  He  was  not  spared 
long  to  cultivate  his  new  field,  as  he  died  suddenly,  in  1886. 
The  death  of  his  brother.  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar  Hodge,  in  1 893, 
terminated  the  family  connection  with  the  seminary,  and  in 
his  case  put  an  end  to  an  influence  and  an  inspiration  which 
has  left  no  monument  of  its  great  worth. 


DOGMATIC    THEOLOGY.  211 

In  Dr.  Wm.  G.  T.  Shedd  (pb.  1 894)  Union  Seminary  found 
a  successor  to  Henry  B.  Smith,  who  represented  the  earher 
Calvinism  and  at  the  same  time  had  been  one  of  the  group 
of  young  Coleridgeans  who  gathered  round  Dr.  James 
Marsh  at  Burhngton,  Vt.,  in  1826.  Like  Dr.  S.  J.  Baird 
(p.  000),  he  defended  the  realistic  conception  of  the  race 
both  in  its  fall  and  in  its  redemption.  His  **  Theological 
Essays  "  (1877),  ''Commentary  on  Romans"  (1879),  *'  Ser- 
mons to  the  Natural  Man"  (3d  ed.,  1884),  and  **  Sermons 
to  the  Spiritual  Man"  (1884)  were  the  forerunners  of  his 
able  but  rigid  "Dogmatic  Theology"  (3  vols.,  1889-94). 
A  more  distinctly  new-school  type  of  doctrine  is  presented 
by  Dr.  E.  D.  Morris,  of  Lane  Seminary,  in  his  "  Outlines 
of  Christian  Doctrine  "  (1880)  and  **  Ecclesiology :  a  Trea- 
tise on  the  Church  "  (1885) ;  ^i^d  by  Dr.  Ransom  B.Welch, 
of  Auburn  Seminary,  in  "  Faith  and  Modern  Thought " 
(2d  ed.,  1880)  and  his  "  Outlines  of  Theology  "  (1881). 

The  Southern  church  in  Robert  L.  Dabney  has  a  church 
leader  who  takes  the  place  of  both  Thornwell  and  Smyth. 
His  "  Sensualistic  Philosophy  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  " 
(1875)  ^i^d  his  "  Theology,  Dogmatic  and  Polemic  "  (3d  ed., 
1885)  are  the  work  of  an  able  controversialist.  He  is  still 
better  known  as  the  biographer  of  his  friend  and  com- 
mander, General  ''Stonewall  "  Jackson,  on  whose  staff  he 
served. 

The  smaller  Presbyterian  bodies,  despite  their  intense 
interest  in  dogmatic  theology,  have  been  prevented  by 
their  circumstances  from  adding  much  to  its  literature.  A 
noteworthy  exception  to  this  is  Rev.  John  M.  Armour,  of  the 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Synod  (O.  S.),  who  in  his  "  Atone- 
ment and  Law  "  (1886)  and  other  works  seeks  to  furnish  a 
defense,  modern  in  spirit  and  method,  for  the  most  scho- 
lastic Calvinism,  and  who  impresses  every  careful  reader 
with  his  force  of  thought  even  when  he  provokes  dissent. 


212  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

To  the  same  body  we  owe  Dr.  Thomas  Sproull's  **  Prelec- 
tions on  Theology  "  (1882). 

In  the  closely  related  field  of  Christian  philosophy  Prince- 
ton College  possessed  in  Dr.  James  McCosh  the  chief  Amer- 
ican representative  of  the  Scottish  school,  but  an  indepen- 
dent worker  in  this  field.  It  still  has  Dr.  Charles  W.  Shields, 
whose  "  Final  Philosophy  "  (2d  ed.,  1879)  seeks  to  secure 
to  the  science  the  place  of  arbitrator  in  pending  disputes ; 
and  Dr.  Francis  L.  Patton,  who  occupies  himself  with  the 
problems  of  Christian  theism.  Dr.  Laurens  P.  Hicock,  of 
Auburn  Seminary  and  Union  College,  in  "  The  Logic  of 
Reason  "  (1875)  and  other  works,  elaborates  a  philosophy 
which  touches  Kant  and  Coleridge  on  one  side  and  the 
new  school  of  experimental  psychology  on  the  other. 

In  apologetical  theology  Albert  Barnes  broke  new  ground 
in  his  *'  Evidences  of  Christianity  in  the  Nineteenth  Cent- 
ury "  (1868);  but  his  "Letters  to  Gerrit  Smith"  (1869) 
on  the  use  made  by  Universalists  of  a  famous  passage  in 
one  of  his  sermons  are  even  more  interesting  and  powerful 
— perhaps  the  most  characteristic  of  all  his  works.  Dr. 
A.W.  Pitzer  contributed  his  share  of  the  literature  provoked 
by  Professor  Seeley's  book  in  his  "  Ecce  Deus-Homo  " 
(1867).  Dr.  S.  H.  Kellogg,  in  "  The  Light  of  Asia  and  the 
Light  of  the  World  "  (1885),  controverted,  with  full  knowl- 
edge and  great  ability,  the  attempts  made  to  set  Buddha, 
'*  the  light  of  Asia,"  above  or  beside  Christ.  He  is  a  type 
of  the  man  of  letters  who  has  found  the  stimulus  to  author- 
ship on  the  mission  field.  Beside  him  we  place  Dr.  Elias 
Riggs,  of  Constantinople,  translator  of  the  Scriptures  into 
Armenian,  Bulgarian,  and  Turkish,  and  author  of  original 
works  in  these  and  in  modern  Greek;  Dr.  George  E.  Post, 
of  Beirut,  an  authority  on  the  natural  history  of  the  Bible, 
and  a  contributor  to  Smith's  Bible  Dictionary ;  Dr.  H.  H. 
Jessup,  of  Beirut,  author  of  "  The  Mohammedan  Mission- 


BIBLICAL   SCHOLARSHIP.  213 

sionary  Problem  "  (1879)  and  "  The  Women  of  the  Arabs  " 
(1873) ;  Dr.  John  C.  Lowrie,  author  of  **  Missionary  Papers" 
(1882) ;  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  of  Peking,  head  of  the  Chi- 
nese Imperial  College,  and  author  of  "  The  Chinese  :  Their 
Education,  Philosophy,  and  Letters  "(1881) ;  and  Dr.  A.W. 
Loomis,  author  of  '*  Confucius  and  the  Chinese  Classics  " 
(2d  ed.,  1882).  The  most  prolific  writer  on  missions  is 
Dr.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  editor  of  the  '*  Missionary  Review 
of  the  World,"  and  author  of  *' The  Crisis  of  Missions" 
(1888)  and  other  works  calculated  to  stir  up  the  church 
to  a  sense  of  her  duty. 

In  the  field  of  home  missions  the  literary  impulse  is  less 
felt.  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson's  book  on  Alaska  (1880)  lies 
on  the  middle  line  between  the  two  fields.  Dr.  H.  W. 
Pierson's  "  In  the  Brush  ;  or,  Old-Time  Social,  Political,  and 
Religious  Life  in  the  Southwest  "  (1881),  gives  the  harvest 
of  his  observations  as  an  agent  of  the  Bible  Society,  and 
with  unusual  literary  skill. 

The  scholarship  of  the  church  in  the  field  of  exegetical 
theology  was  tested  in  the  selection  by  Dr.  Philip  Schaff 
of  his  co-workers  on  the  translation  of  Lange's  Com- 
mentary (25  vols.,  1864-80).  Besides  the  general  editor, 
who  came  over  from  the  German  Reformed  Church  in 
18^,  Drs.  C.  A.  Aiken,  Charles  A.  Briggs,  E.  R.  Craven, 
Howard  Crosby,  Charles  Elliott,  Llewellyn  J.  Evans, 
William  H.  Green,  Wihiam  Henry  Hornblower,  John 
Lillie,  Samuel  T.  Lowrie,  Dunlop  Moore,  Daniel  W.  Poor, 
M.  B.  Riddle,  William  G.  T.  Shedd,  Conway  P.  Wing,  and 
Edward  D.  Yeomans  had  a  share  in  the  work.  So  in  the 
revision  of  the  "  Authorized  "  Version  of  the  English  Bible, 
Dr.  William  Henry  Green  presided  over  the  Old  Testament 
division  of  the  American  committee,  to  which  also  belonged 
Professors  Charles  A.  Aiken  and  John  De  Witt,  the  latter 
then  in   the   Reformed  Church;    in   the    New  Testament 


214  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

committee  were  Drs.  H.  B.  Smith  (snatched  away  by 
death),  Howard  Crosby,  M.  B.  Riddle,  and  Philip  Schaff, 
while  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  was  a  corresponding  member. 

In  Old  Testament  criticism  Dr.  William  Henry  Green  is 
the  type  of  conservative  scholarship,  and  the  unflinching 
antagonist  of  documentary  hypotheses,  of  the  duplication 
of  Isaiahs,  and  the  rest.  He  began  his  apologetic  work 
with  a  reply  to  Bishop  Colenso  in  1863,  and  followed  it 
up  in  "Moses  and  the  Prophets"  (1883),  ''The  Hebrew 
Feasts"  (1885),  and  ''The  Pentateuchal  Question"  in  "He- 
braica"  (1890-92),  besides  numerous  articles,  especially  in 
the  "  Presbyterian  Review  "  (1880  ff.).  By  a  sort  of  agree- 
ment the  views  of  both  the  conservative  and  the  liberal  crit- 
ics were  presented  in  alternate  numbers,  Drs.  Green,  A.  A. 
Hodge,  and  B.  B.  Warfield  representing  the  former.  Dr. 
Green's  point  of  view  is  shared  by  Dr.  Charles  Elliott  in  his 
*'  Treatise  on  Inspiration  "  (1877)  and  his  "  Mosaic  Author- 
ship of  the  Pentateuch"  (1884),  and  by  many  who  have 
not  given  permanent  shape  to  their  pleas  for  the  traditional 
theory. 

On  the  other  side,  and  with  equal  prominence,  there 
stands  a  much  younger  man,  Dr.  Charles  Augustus  Briggs, 
of  Union  Seminary,  who  as  early  as  the  year  of  the  reunion 
declared  the  traditional  view  of  inspiration  to  be  untenable. 
In  his  articles  in  the  "  Presbyterian  Review,"  his  book  on 
"  Biblical  Study  "( 1 883  and  1 885),  his  "  Messianic  Prophecy  " 
(1886),  and  his  pamphlet-book,  "Whither?"  (1889)  he 
made  progressive  advance  toward  the  positions  taken  in  the 
famous  Inaugural  of  1891,  and  his  "  The  Bible,  the  Church, 
and  Reason"  (1892),  and  his  "Higher  Criticism  of  the 
Hexateuch  "  (1893),  which  led  to  his  suspension  from  the 
ministry.  Substantially  in  agreement  with  him  were  Pro- 
fessors Evans  and  Smith,  of  the  Lane  Seminary,  while  Pro- 
fessor Willis  J.  Beecher  maintained  with  firmness  and  judg- 


BIBLICAL   SCHOLARSHIP.  215 

ment  an  intermediate  position  between  the  two  schools, 
standing  open  to  hear  what  the  new  criticism  had  to  offer, 
but  subjecting  it  to  a  searching  examination.         • 

Of  commentaries  on  Old  Testament  books  the  list  is 
short.  Dr.  William  S.  Plumer,  who  offered  the  exscind- 
ing resolutions  in  1837,  and  who  cast  in  his  lot  with  the 
Southern  church,  illustrates  ably  the  old  style  of  exegesis 
in  his  bulky  book  on  the  Psalms.  Dr.  Marvin  R.  Vin- 
cent's "  Gates  into  the  Psalm-Country  "(1878  and  1883)  are 
suggestive  discourses  on  single  points.  Dr.  S.  H.  Kel- 
logg's  "  Leviticus  "  is  the  only  American  contribution  to 
the  Expositor's  Bible.  In  the  related  field  of  Assyriology 
Professor  Francis  Brown,  of  Union  Seminary,  holds  ac- 
knowledged rank,  and  is  associated  with  Professor  Briggs 
as  American  co-workers  on  the  new  dictionary  of  Hebrew. 
In  that  of  Egyptology  Rev.  Alfred  H.  Kellogg  in  his 
"Abraham,  Joseph  and  Moses  in  Egypt '^  (1887),  has  done 
much  toward  solving  the  problem  presented  by  the  Egyp- 
tian and  Mosaic  chronologies. 

In  the  New  Testament  field  Professor  Isaac  H.  Hall  has 
done  scholarly  work  on  the  bibliography  of  the  Greek  text. 
Dr.  C.  Rene  Gregory — now  a  Lutheran — after  helping  Dr. 
Charles  Hodge  in  the  historical  portion  of  his  **  Systematic 
Theology,"  became  co-worker  with  Professor  Tischendorf 
on  his  final  edition  of  the  Greek  New  Testament,  and  since 
his  death  has  completed  it.  Dr.  Schaff,  in  addition  to  his 
labors  in  organizing  the  American  Committee  of  Revisers 
and  in  arranging  the  terms  of  the  publication  of  the  Re- 
vised Version,  reissued,  with  an  Introduction,  the  three 
most  scholarly  treatises  in  advocacy  of  revision  (Lightfoot, 
Trench,  and  Iillicott)  in  1873,  ^^d  published  a  volume 
giving  an  account  of  the  undertaking  in  1879.  He  also 
edited,  with  an  Introduction,  in  1 882,  the  Westcott  and  Hort 
edition  of  the  Greek  text  used  by  the  revisers,  and  pub- 


5l6  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap,  xvh 

lished  in  the  same  year  "  A  Companion  to  the  Greek  New 
Testament  and  the  English  Version."  Besides  his  edition 
of  Lange,  he  edited,  with  the  assistance  of  Dr.  M.  B. 
Riddle,  and  several  English  scholars,  a  popular  "  Illus- 
trated Commentary  on  the  New  Testament"  (1878-83), 
which  was  partially  reissued  as  the  '*  International  Revision 
Commentary"  in  1882  fT.  In  this  field  he  was  not  an 
expert  as  in  that  of  history ;  but  he  possessed  a  wide  range 
of  theological  culture,  which  he  made  useful  to  the 
American  churches. 

Dr.  Marvin  R.  Vincent's  *'  Word-Studies  in  the  New 
Testament"  (1887-90)  represents  an  effort  to  reach  the 
sense  of  the  text  by  analysis  and  comparison.  President 
D.  S.  Gregory,  in  *' Why  Four  Gospels?"  (3d  ed.,  1885), 
gives  a  popular  discussion  of  a  most  interesting  problem. 
Dr.  Howard  Crosby  (pb.  1891),  in  his  "  Commentary  on  the 
New  Testament  "  (1885),  as  in  earlier  works,  brought  sound 
classical  scholarship  to  the  service  of  exegetics.  Dr.  W\  S. 
Plumer  has  discussed  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  the 
Hebrews  on  the  same  scale  as  the  Psalms.  Dr.  Shedd  has 
written  on  Romans.  Dr.  S.  T.  Lowrie  bases  his  work  on 
Hebrews  on  the  very  able  commentary  of  Hofmann  of 
Erlangen.  Dr.  John  LilHe's  posthumous  *'  Lectures  on  the 
Epistles  of  Peter"(i869)is  the  workof  one  whom  Dr.  Schaff 
placed  among  the  best  biblical  scholars  of  America.  Rev. 
W.  R.  Reid,  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  has  written 
on  Revelation — a  book  now  much  less  discussed  than  half  a 
century  ago.  Dr.  J.  H.  Mcllvaine's  "  Wisdom  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse "(1886)  explains  the  book  from  a  novel  point  of  view. 

In  historical  theology  Dr.  Schaff  holds  the  lead  with  his 
great  "  History  of  the  Christian  Church,"  Unhappily  never 
finished.  His  translation  and  adaptation  of  Herzog's 
"Real-Encyklopadie"  (1884  and  1887),  his  ''Creeds  of 
Christendom"  (4th  ed.,   1884),  his  monographs  on  *' Au- 


CtlURCH  HISTORIANS,  2  1  7 

gustine,  Melanchthon,  and  Neander  "  (i886),  and  his  "  Li- 
brary of  the  Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers"  (25  vols., 
1886  ff.)  all  contributed  to  familiarizing  American  read- 
ers with  historic  method  in  estimating  the  church's  past. 
When  he  came  to  America  in  1845  history  was  still  the 
obedient  handmaid  of  dogmatic  theology,  and  histories 
were  written  in  the  interests  of  edification  or  orthodoxy  or 
sect.  It  is  to  his  labors,  and  those  of  Henry  B.  Smith 
and  John  F.  Hurst — the  latter  a  Methodist — that  we  owe 
the  emancipation  of  the  science. 

Of  general  writers  on  church  history  the  tale  is  as  short 
as  that  of  writers  on  special  and  local  history  is  long.  Rev. 
Samuel  Macauley  Jackson's  ''  Concise  Dictionary  of  Relig- 
ious Knowledge"  (1889;  3^  ed.,  1893)  is  quite  strong  in 
the  departments  of  history  and  biography,  and  the  best 
handbook  of  its  kind  we  have.*  Dr.  William  M.  Blackburn 
has  written  a  popular  handbook  (1879)  which  is  much  supe- 
rior to  his  earlier  monographs  in  this  field,  being  eminently 
graphic  and  readable.  It  is  not  possible  to  give  the  same 
praise  to  Dr.  J.  C.  Moffat's  "  Church  History  in  Brief" 
(1885)  or  ''  The  Church  in  Scotland  "  (1882).  Rev.  George 
Slater's  ''  Historical  and  Critical  Essay  on  the  Acta  Pilati'' 
(1879),  Professor  Francis  Brow^n  and  President  R.  D.  Hitch- 
cock's "Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles"  (Greek  and 
English;  2d  ed.,  1885),  and  Dr.  Schaff's  translation  of  the 
same  document  stand  for  a  hopeful  widening  of  historic 
interest. 

In  t-lie  field  of  European  Protestant  history  Dr.  Henry 
M.  Baird's  '*  Huguenots  of  France"  (2d  ed.,  1885)  and 
his  "Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre"  (1886),  Dr.  C.  M. 
Baird's  "  Huguenot  Emigration  to  America  "  (2d  ed.,  1 885), 
and  Dr.  E.  H.  Gillett's  "Life  and  Times  of  John  Huss  " 
(3d  ed.,  1870)  are  all  creditable  to  American  scholarship. 

In  the  field  of  American  Presbyterian  history  the  palm 


2l8  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvl. 

is  due  to  Dr.  J.  B.  Scouller  for  his  careful  studies  of  the 
history  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  and  its  pred- 
ecessors, most  of  which  have  not  been  pubUshed  in  book 
form.  Dr.  Charles  Augustus  Briggs's  **  American  Pres- 
byterianism :  Its  Origin^  and  Growth"  enriches  the  subject 
with  new  documents  and  seeks  to  show  the  justification 
history  offers  to  liberal  interpretation ;  but  none  of  his 
works  evidence  the  possession  of  the  historic  spirit.  Dr. 
George  P.  Hays's  popular  book,  "  Presbyterians,"  offers  a 
good  conspectus  of  the  past  and  present  of  the  church  in 
its  several  branches.  Dr.  Alfred  Nevin's  "  Encyclopedia 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church"  contains  much  that  should 
find  no  place  in  such  a  work,  and  omits  much  that  should. 
It  is  written  with  little  regard  to  historical  perspective  ;  but 
it  contains  information  which  might  have  been  lost.  It  is 
confined  to  the  national  and  the  southern  Assemblies. 

Of  local  histories  the  number  is  very  great,  and  the  qual- 
ity improving,  possibly  through  the  exhaustion  of  lauda- 
tory commonplaces  and  certainly  through  the  diffusion  of 
a  truer  interest  in  the  historic  past.  Dr.  S.  D.  Alexander's 
rather  dry  and  matter-of-fact  history  of  the  New  York 
Presbyteries,  Dr.  Thomas  Murphy's  more  exuberant  and 
enthusiastic  book  on  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  North, 
Mr.  Sloan's  ''  Presbytery  of  Kittatining,"  Dr.  Norton's 
"Illinois,"  and  Dr.  Howe's  ''South  Carolina"  are  espe- 
cially w^orthy  of  mention.  So  are  Dr.  Prentiss's  *'  First  Fifty 
Years  of  Union  Seminary  "  (1889)  and  Mr.  Hageman'swork 
on  "Princeton  and  its  Institutions"  (1879).  Dr.  Conway  P. 
Wing's  "  First  Church  of  Carlisle  "  (1877)  and  his  ''  Pres- 
byteries of  Donegal  and  CarHsle  "  (1876),  Mr.  Turner's 
"Neshaminy  Church  "  (1876),  and  the  "  Centenary  Memo- 
rial" of  the  meeting  of  the  four  Synods  at  Pittsburg  in  1875 
are  all  soHd  contributions  to  Presbyterian  history.  As 
these  dates  show,  the  national  centenary  of  1876  was  more 


DEVOTIONAL    WRITERS.  219 

fruitful  than  that  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1888  in  sug- 
gesting historical  research  in  this  field.  In  good  biographies 
the  period  has  not  been  rich,  the  best  being  Dr.  A.  A. 
Hodge's  life  of  his  father,  Dr.  Stearns's  life  of  Dr.  Henry 
B.  Smith,  Mr.  George  Junkin's  life  of  his  father,  and  Dr. 
Palmer's  life  of  Dr.  Thornwell.  Mr.  H.  C.  Alexander's 
life  of  Dr.  Addison  Alexander  is  much  below  the  interest 
of  the  subject,  and  Mr.  Grasty's  life  of  Dr.  McPheeters  is 
one  of  the  worst-written  books  in  the  language.  The  auto- 
biographies of  Dr.  Gardiner  Spring,  Dr.  Samuel  Irenaeus 
Prime,  and  George  H.  Stuart  share  in  the  charm  which 
belongs  to  that  species  of  writing.  Professor  Sloane's  life 
of  his  father  is  a  portrait  of  a  man  who  exhibited  the 
strong  Covenanter  type  of  character,  in  combination  with 
most  attractive  personal  qualities. 

In  the  department  of  devotional  theology  the  church 
is  fortunate  in  possessing  writers  of  more  than  national 
repute.  The  many  articles  and  the  less  numerous  books 
of  Drs.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  John  Hall,  and  J.  R.  Miller 
have  nourished  the  spiritual  life  wherever  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  spoken.  Of  the  church's  preachers  Dr. 
T.  De  Witt  Talmage  is  the  most  widely  known,  though  not 
for  qualities  distinctly  Presbyteriah ;  John  Hall,  whose 
sermons  gather  force,  where  others  weaken,  toward  the 
close ;  John  De  Witt,  who  sees  so  finely  the  points  of  con- 
tact between  lofty  principles  and  homely  duties;  Henry 
van  Dyke,  who  brings  the  culture  of  the  modern  world  to 
bear  on  his  pulpit  work  ;  Charles  Wadsworth,  who  illumined 
every  topic  with  the  coruscations  of  genius  ;  Herrick  John- 
son, who  presses  his  tlieme  with  the  cogency  of  a  great 
pleader;  Charles  H.  Parkhurst,  who  turns  the  light  upon 
the  dark  places  alike  of  the  human  conscience  and  of  New 
York  society ;  William  S.  Plumer,  who  fused  a  severe  the- 
ology with   tender  emotion ;    Francis   L.    Patton,  who  by 


220  THE  PRESBYTEJUANS,  [Chap.  xvi. 

sheer  force  of  logic  cuts  the  channels  for  right  action  and 
feeling ;  Benjamin  M.  Palmer,  whose  fervid  eloquence  has 
the  polish  of  the  Southern  school  of  oratory ;  Professor 
W.  W.  Moore,  who  seizes  on  the  effective  points  of  a  sub- 
ject with  marvelous  precision — these  are  but  a  few  of  the 
notable  preachers  who  have  helped  to  keep  the  American 
pulpit  vigorously  masculine  and  socially  powerful. 

In  sacred  poetry  Presbyterians  make  a  much  feebler  show- 
ing. The  Scotch- Irish  race  has  never  been  imaginative, 
on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Margaret  Junkin  Preston 
is  a  poet  of  unquestioned  power  and  of  the  purest  Pres- 
byterian stock.  Her  poem  on  the  dangerous  illness  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales  elicited  thanks  from  his  noble  wdfe. 
Sidney  Lanier,  though  dealing  but  seldom  with  sacred 
themes,  has  not  written  a  line  out  of  keeping  with  his 
Huguenot  descent  and  his  Presbyterian  training.  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Prentiss  displays  less  of  vigor  in  expression,  but 
a  boldness  in  tender  thought,  which  at  times  recalls  the 
mystics.  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Duffield,  like  his  father  (p.  146), 
had  a  genuine  gift  of  song  and  a  wdde  acquaintance  with 
Latin  and  English  hymnology.  His  "  English  Hymns : 
Their  Authors  and  their  History  "  (2d  ed.,  1886)  is  a  Ht- 
erary  commentary  on  Dr.  Robinson's  ''  Laudes  Domini  " 
(1884).  His  "Latin  Hymn-Writers  and  their  Hymns" 
(1889)  is  pronounced  by  Rev.  John  Julian  "  the  most  com- 
plete and  popular  account  which  has  been  published  in  the 
English  language."  Professor  Francis  A.  March's  **  Latin 
Hymns  with  English  Notes"  (1874)  has  put  the  finest 
within  the  reach  of  a  wide  public.  Dr.  Philip  Schaff's 
"  Christ  in  Song"  (1869)  contains  some  beautiful  transla- 
tions by  the  editor.  The  "  Library  of  Religious  Poetry  " 
(1881),  edited  by  him  and  Mr.  Arthur  Oilman,  and  Dr.  S. 
Irenaeus  Prime's  "  Songs  of  the  Soul  "  (1874)  are  anthol- 
ogies of  some  value. 


H  YMNOL  0  GIS  TS.  221 

In  the  development  of  the  worship  of  praise  Dr.  Charles 
S.  Robinson  may  be  said  to  have  achieved  a  revolution  by 
his  series  of  musical  hymn-books,  from  his  *'  Songs  of  the 
Church"  (1862)  and  ''Songs  of  the  Sanctuary"  (1865)  to 
his  last  revision  of  *'  Laudes  Domini  "  (1892).  He  always 
has  been  stronger  and  more  independent  in  the  musical 
than  the  literary  character  of  his  books ;  but  his  *'  Annota- 
tions upon  Popular  Hymns"  (1893)  shows  a  close  famil- 
iarity with  the  hymn-writers  and  their  work.  Dr.  Edwin 
F.  Hatfield,  long  the  clerk  of  the  General  Assembly,  was 
himself  a  hymn- writer  of  merit.  His  "  Church  Hymn- 
Book,  with  Tunes"  (1872),  is  carefully  edited  as  regards 
both  text  and  music,  and,  while  keeping  well  within  the 
lines  of  established  tradition,  does  not  ignore  the  new  poets 
and  musicians.  In  ''  The  Poets  of  the  Church  "  (1884)  he 
furnishes  a  kind  of  biographical  commentary  to  his  own 
collection.  The  ''Hymns  and  Songs  of  Praise"  (1874), 
edited  by  Drs.  R.  D.  Hitchcock,  Zachary  Eddy  (Reformed), 
and  Philip  Schaff,  is  the  amplest  collection,  and  in  its  day 
the  widest  in  range  of  selection.  "  Carmina  Sanctorum," 
by  Drs.  Hitchcock  and  Schaff  and  Mr.  Lewis  Ward  Mudge, 
is  a  smaller  collection,  but  with  much  the  same  character. 
Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall,  in  his  "  Evangelical  Hymnal," 
shows  himself  a  decided  innovator,  drawing  upon  the  latest 
Anglican  composers  and  hymn-writers  very  freely.  In 
"  The  Church  Praise-Book  "  (1881),  edited  by  himself  and 
Mr.  Hubert  P.  Main,  Dr.  M.  Woolsey  Stryker  gives  a  very 
cathoHc  selection,  enriched  with  ten  of  his  own  hymns. 
In  his  "Church  Song"  (1889)  he  increases  this  number 
threefold.  His  hymns  in  "The  Song  of  Miriam"  (1888) 
have  much  beauty  of  thought,  but  sometimes  fall  short  of 
the  simplicity  and  obviousness  in  expression  required  for 
the  widest  popularity.  Other  Presbyterian  hymnodists  are 
Dr.  Hervey  D.  Ganse,  Rev.  Epher  Whitaker,  Rev.  Aaron 


222  THE  PRESBYTERIANS,  [Chap.  xvi. 

R.  Wolfe,  Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  Mrs.  Herrick  Johnson, 
Anson  D.  F.  Randolph,  Mrs.  M.  H.  Seward  ("Agnes  Bur- 
ney  "),  and  Professor  Robert  P.  Dunn. 

The  efforts  of  the  reunited  church  and  of  the  Southern 
Assembly  to  secure  satisfactory  books  of  praise  were  not 
at  once  successful.  After  a  preliminary  balk  **  The  Pres- 
byterian Hymnal  "  (1874)  appeared,  understood  to  be  the 
work  chiefly  of  Dr.  J.  T.  Duryea.  In  both  hymns  and 
tunes  it  fell  decidedly  below  the  better  class  of  American 
hymnaries,  but  it  was  twenty  years  before  its  revision  was 
effected,  and  then  only  because  the  more  educated  and 
exacting  congregations  were  discarding  it  in  favor  of  pri- 
vate compilations.  Even  worse  in  its  dolefulness  of  spirit 
and  general  feebleness  w^as  the  Southern  "  Psalms  and 
Hymns  for  the  Worship  of  God  "  (1874),  now  also  super- 
seded by  a  better  book.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  both 
churches  have  abandoned  the  Reformed  tradition,  and 
widened  the  breach  among  Presbyterians,  by  failing  to  place 
the  Book  of  Psalms  in  the  forefront  of  their  hymnaries. 

This  necessarily  imperfect  summary  shows  the  increasing 
activity  of  American  Presbyterians  in  many  branches  of 
scholarly  work.  It  is  weakest  on  the  literary  side,  nor  can 
it  be  said  that  they  have  contributed  largely  to  the  grati- 
fying growth  of  national  literature  during  the  present  half- 
century. 

The  Presbyterian  churches  have  had  their  share  of  the 
friction  which  attends  the  process  of  readjustment  of  old 
beliefs  to  new  discoveries  and  theories,  which  has  made  up 
the  intellectual  history  of  the  last  half-century.  Naturally 
conservative  by  temperament  and  theological  by  vocation, 
they  have  been  less  prompt  than  others  to  accept  new 
views,  but  they  often  have  ignored  their  claims  instead  of 
submitting  them  to  a  searching  examination.     In  the  re- 


THE   SWING    TRIAL.  22 1 

adjustments  of  religious  belief  to  scientific  discovery  and 
speculation  their  attitude  has  been  wise  and  patient.  When 
it  became  clear  that  the  age  of  the  earth  and  of  man  in- 
volved at  least  a  reinterpretation  of  the  Mosaic  account 
of  creation,  and  called  in  question  the  chronology  which 
Ussher  and  Newton  had  extracted  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment narrative,  there  was  a  slow  and  quiet  acquiescence  in 
the  fact.  The  evolutionary  theory  of  the  origin  of  species, 
and  of  man's  animal  nature,  was  met  with  toleration,  except 
in  the  prosecution  of  Dr.  James  Wodrow  in  the  Southern 
church.  The  attempt  to  elevate  science  itself  to  the  level 
of  a  complete  philosophy,  with  the  result  of  reducing  men 
to  the  rank  of  parts  of  nature,  governed  by  necessary  laws 
as  nature  is,  and  therefore  destitute  of  any  real  freedom 
of  action,  was  even  greeted  wnth  favor  by  some  orthodox 
writers,  on  account  of  its  supposed  coincidence  with  the 
conclusions  of  Calvinism. 

There  has  been,  therefore,  but  little  ecclesiastical  dis- 
turbance along  the  lines  on  which  the  hardest  intellectual 
battle  of  the  age  has  been  fought  and  is  not  yet  completed. 
That  along  the  lines  of  literary  and  historical  criticism  falls 
to  the  next  chapter.  The  controversies  and  heresy  trials 
of  this  period  were,  therefore,  of  minor  importance,  and 
with  one  exception  they  attracted  almost  no  attention  out- 
side of  the  church.  That  exception  was  the  prosecution  of 
Professor  David  Swing  before  the  Presbytery  of  Chicago, 
in  1874,  by  Professor  Francis  L.  Patton,  of  the  Northwest- 
ern Seminary,  who  also  was  editing  the  ''Interior"  and 
serving  a  Chicago  church  as  its  pastor.  In  his  editorial 
work  his  attention  was  called  to  the  preaching  and  public 
acts  of  a  brother-pastor.  Professor  David  Swing.  This 
gentleman  was  of  German  descent  and  of  old-school  train- 
ing.    He  had  come  in  1866  to  the  pastorate  of  the  West- 


224  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

minster  Church  (O.S.)  from  a  chair  in  Miami  University, 
and  had  attracted  a  large  congregation  by  his  original  and 
suggestive  sermons.  He  showed  in  these  the  mind  of  a 
prose  poet  rather  than  of  a  logician,  while  his  antagonist 
■was  a  logician  before  everything.  In  certain  statements 
found  in  Professor  Swing's  published  sermons  Dr.  Patton 
thought  he  detected  contradictions  of  the  Confession  of 
Faith  on  t^lection,  Perseverance,  Original  Sin,  the  Vicarious 
Sacrifice  of  Christ,  the  Trinity,  the  Deity  of  Christ,  Jus- 
tification by  Faith,  Plenary  Inspiration,  Biblical  Infalli- 
bility, and  the  Call  to  the  Ministry,  besides  his  "  giving 
the  weight  of  his  influence  to  the  Unitarian  denomination  " 
by  lecturing  in  behalf  of  one  of  their  chapels.  This  long 
indictment  was  reached  by  logical  inferences  from  Professor 
Swing's  words,  and  these  inferences  the  latter  repudiated. 
The  Presbytery,  which  was  composed  mainly  of  new- 
school  men,  acquitted  Professor  Swing,  after  a  trial  which 
lasted  six  weeks,  by  a  vote  of  three  to  one.  As  an  appeal 
was  taken  to  the  Synod  of  Illinois,  Professor  Swing  at  once 
announced  his  withdrawal  from  the  church,  as  he  had  an 
utter  distaste  for  polemics,  and  his  attachment  to  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  had  been  much  weakened  by  this  experi- 
ence. He  gathered  an  independent  congregation,  to  which 
he  preached  with  no  diminution  of  his  popularity  or  in- 
crease of  his  orthodoxy  until  his  death,  in  1894.  Two 
men — the  Esau  of  liberalism  and  the  Jacob  of  orthodoxy 
— were  always  struggling  to  the  birth  in  him,  and  this  kind 
of  midwifery  greatly  added  to  Esau's  chances. 

The  transaction  made  an  unpleasant  impression  through- 
out the  church.  Few  could  go  with  the  Presbytery  in  its 
absolute  acquittal  of  the  accused,  and  not  many  were  sat- 
isfied with  the  spirit  and  manner  of  the  prosecution.  Many 
things  which  w^ere  alleged  to  prove  Professor  Swing's  het- 
erodoxy would  pass  now  without  a  word  of  comment,  still 


LESSER   HERETICS. 


225 


less  of  objection.  It  is  no  longer  possible  to  elevate  the 
destiny  of  Penelope  and  Socrates,  or  the  moral  character 
of  John  Stuart  Mill,  to  the  level  of  an  issue  in  dogmatics. 

Nothing  like  the  same  interest  attached  to  the  trial  of^ 
Rev.  John  Miller  before  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick 
in  1877,  although  he  was  the  son  of  Dr.  Samuel  Miller,  of 
Princeton  Seminary.  It  was  felt  on  all  hands  that  Mr. 
Miller  had  put  himself  outside  the  pale  of  Presbyterianism 
by  his  rejection  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  although  he 
held  to  the  proper  deity  of  Jesus  the  Christ.  He  also  as- 
serted the  annihilation  of  man  by  death  until  he  is  raised 
again  at  the  resurrection;  and  that  Christ  took  upon  him 
original  sin  and  was  capable  of  sin.  The  decision  reached 
by  the  Presbytery  commanded  the  assent  of  the  entire 
church. 

There  was  not  quite  the  same  unanimity  in  approving 
the  action  of  the  Presbytery  of  Huntingdon,  Pa.,  in  the 
case  of  the  Rev.  J.  W.  White,  in  1884.  Mr.  White  evi- 
dently was  in  a  state  of  mental  reaction  against  the  legal 
conception  of  redemption,  and  was  striving  after  one  in 
which  real  should  replace  jural  relations  and  conceptions. 
He  also  asserted  that  the  scope  of  the  atonement  is  found 
defined  in  its  effects  upon  redeemed  men.  On  this  point, 
and  in  his  conception  of  the  resurrection,  he  showed  the 
influence  of  Swedenborg's  teaching.  The  Presbytery, 
after  condemning  his  teaching  on  these  points,  allowed 
him  to  withdraw  from  the  ministry  of  the  church.  This 
gentleness  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania  disapproved,  while 
applauding  the  Presbytery's  findings  on  the  charges. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  CONGREGATIONAL  LIFE  AND  WORSHIP  OF  THE 
CHURCH. 

In  the  Presbyterian  view  of  the  church,  it  consists  of  a 
series  of  assemblies,  congregational,  presbyterial,  provin- 
cial (or  synodical),  national,  and  ecumenical.  Each  larger 
body  embraces  as  its  parts  all  the  lesser  which  fall  within 
its  bounds,  and  possesses  their  functions  of  teaching,  wor- 
ship, and  discipline.  Thus  the  presbyterial  church  is  the 
aggregate  of  all  the  congregational  churches  under  its  care, 
and  more.  The  ministers  (or  bishops)  resident  within  its 
bounds  are  members  of  the  presbyterial  church,  but  not 
of  congregational  churches,  their  ordination  transferring 
them  from  the  one  to  the  other. 

In  the  Presbyterian  system  in  practice  the  Presbytery 
is  the  most  important  unit.  It  meets  far  more  frequently 
than  the  larger  bodies  can ;  it  elects  the  members  of  the 
Assemblies,  and  in  the  large  States  those  of  the  Synods ; 
it  has  supervision  of  a  manageable  area;  it  has  the  sole 
power  of  ordination  and  of  licensure ;  it  possesses  primary 
jurisdiction  over  the  ministry  of  the  church ;  and,  through 
the  operation  of  the  Barrier  Act,  it  possesses  a  control  of 
the  church's  constitution  in  which  Synods  and  sessions  do 
not  share.  In  its  original  purpose  it  was  to  serve  many 
uses.  It  was  a  theological  school  for  the  training  of  its 
own  members  by  the  selection  of  profitable  themes  of  dis- 
cussion and  by  friendly  criticisms  of  the  sermons  preached. 

226 


PRE  SB  YTER  Y  A  A^D    CO  KG  RE  GA  TION.  2  2  7 

The  trials  of  students  before  licensure,  and  of  licentiates 
before  ordination,  are  a  remnant  only  of  this.  It  also  ex- 
ercised the  most  direct  care  over  its  congregations.  It  met 
with  each  church  in  turn,  to  take  cognizance  of  its  spiritual 
condition,  the  faithfulness  of  its  minister,  the  efficiency  of 
its  eldership,  the  household  care  of  the  young,  the  freedom 
of  the  people  from  scandals,  and  their  constancy  in  attend- 
ance on  worship  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  This  is  continued 
to  some  extent  among  the  lesser  Presbyterian  bodies,  but 
the  American  Presbytery  generally  exercises  its  episcopal 
functions  at  a  distance,  and  in  a  very  general  way.  It 
very  commonly  has  so  many  churches  under  its  care  that 
it  could  not  visit  them  once  in  a  generation.  Its  meeting 
with  any  of  them  is  but  upon  invitation,  and  the  spiritual 
benefit  (or  harm)  which  results  from  the  visit  is  through  the 
general  influence  of  its  proceedings  rather  than  any  direct 
dealing  with  the  church  itself.  This  is  still  more  true,  of 
necessity,  of  the  Synods  and  the  General  Assembly. 

For  these  reasons  the  spiritual  life  of  the  church  is  de- 
veloped almost  entirely  through  the  congregation.  Each 
local  church  is  what  its  people,  its  session,  and  especially 
its  pastor,  make  of  it.  The  predominance  of  the  pastor  in 
its  life,  and  of  the  preaching  function  in  its  worship,  is  such  as 
would  not  have  been  possible  in  the  apostolic  age,  because 
of  the  difference  in  the  conception  and  working  of  the 
earliest  church.  That  was  a  body  of  great  complexity, 
and  therefore  ranked  high  in  the  sociological  scale.  ''  The 
simplicity  that  is  in  Christ  "  was  not  a  simplicity  of  func- 
tion or  of  operation,  as  the  Apostle  describes  these  in  his 
Epistles  to  the  churches  of  Corinth  and  of  Ephesus.  All 
the  special  powers  and  capacities  which  their  new  life  had 
brought  to  light  in  the  members  of  the  apostolic  church 
were  given  scope  and  exercise  in  its  congregational  life 
and  its  labors  for  the  advance  of  the  gospel.     The  resultant 


228  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvii. 

unity  was  not  that  of  simplicity,  but  of  complexity — "  the 
whole  body  fitly  joined  together  and  compacted  by  that 
which  every  joint  supplieth,  according  to  the  effectual  work- 
ing in  the  measure  of  every  part." 

The  modern  church  has  undergone  sociologic  retrogres- 
sion from  cornplexity  to  simplicity.  It  has  not  been  able 
to  suppress  the  bestowal  of  gifts  and  the  evocation  of 
powers  for  service ;  but  neither  has  it  furnished  a  place  for 
them.  They  have  been  obliged  to  find  their  scope  outside 
the  church  rather  than  in  it.  Thus  the  modern  societies 
for  the  care  of  the  poor  have  taken  up  a  work  which  was 
the  glory  of  the  early  church.  The  Sunday-school,  for 
the  exercise  of  the  gift  of  teaching  or  **  doctrine,"  has 
been  organized  outside  the  congregation,  though  it  gradu- 
ally is  making  its  way  back  into  it.  The  prayer-meeting 
has  been  found  necessary  to  give  scope  to  Christian  free- 
dom in  the  exercise  of  the  gifts  of  supplication  and  ex- 
hortation, because  the  stiff  dignity  and  simplicity  of  the 
Sabbath  services  left  no  room  for  them.  The  Young 
Men's  (and  Women's)  Christian  Associations,  the  Temper- 
ance societies,  the  Christian  Endeavor  societies,  and  the 
rest  of  their  kind,  are  but  so  many  indications  of  the  wo- 
ful  impoverishment  of  the  life  of  the  congregation  through 
its  simplification. 

In  the  actual  working  of  our  Presbyterian  churches  gen- 
erally this  evil  has  reached  an  extreme  development.  The 
habit  of  speaking  of  a  congregation  as  Dr.  A's  or  Mr.  B's 
church  is  but  an  expression  of  the  fact.  Practically  the 
pastor  carries  the  undi\ided  work  on  his  own  shoulders, 
the  sexton  being  the  official  next  in  importance.  The 
Scriptural  diaconate  for  men  has  been  replaced  by  trus- 
tees, who  have  only  the  duties  of  collecting  pew-rents, 
paying  salaries  and  bills,  and  keeping  the  church-building 
in  repair.     The  diaconate  for  women  has  disappeared  alto- 


THE   ELDERSHIP.  229 

gether,  or  is  feebly  represented  by  Dorcas  societies,  ladies' 
aid  societies,  sewing-circles,  mothers'  meetings,  and  the 
like  ;  and  the  effort  to  restore  it  to  its  rightful  place  in  the 
church's  order  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  the  Presbyteries, 
after  receiving  the  sanction  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
1 89 1,  and  the  strong  approval  of  the  Princeton  Seminary 
faculty.^ 

Lastly,  the  eldership,  which  has  been  the  glory  and  the 
strength  of  Presbyterianism,  is  tending  to  become  little 
more  than  association  with  the  pastor  in  a  religious  com- 
mittee to  dispose  of  matters  of  discipline  and  the  like.  Its 
active  and  public  functions  ceased  when  the  annual  and 
formal  visitation  of  the  congregation  was  given  up.  Its 
members  are  generally  too  busy  to  do  more  than  attend 
an  evening  meeting  once  a  month  or  less,  and  it  is  excep- 
tional to  find  that  they  regard  even  the  visiting  of  the  sick 
as  one  of  the  duties  of  the  office.  There  is,  consequently, 
a  profound  dissatisfaction  with  the  present  status  of  the  elder- 
ship, both  among  its  own  members  and  elsewhere.  Con- 
ferences are  held  and  papers  read  w^hich  either  describe  an 
impossible  ideal  or  make  trifling  suggestions.  The  sense 
of  unexhausted  possibilities  in  the  office  is  not  wanting, 
but  what  to  do  is  not  so  evident.  The  purely  lay  char- 
acter of  its  members,  their  absorption  in  business  pursuits, 
their  lack  of  personal  oversight  and  authority  in  the  con- 
gregation, are  all  in  antagonism  to  Presbyterian  history, 
however  well  these  may  fit  into  Dr.  Hodge's  theory  that 
they  are  simply  the  elected  representatives  of  the  people. 
That  theory,  Indeed,  and  the  general  disuse  of  ordination 
by  laying  on  of  hands,  have  the  air  of  an  accommodation 
to  facts  rather  than  the  exhibition  of  an  Ideal.      And  the 


1  The  essentially  Scriptural  and  Protestant  character  of  this  office  is  well 
exhibited  in  Mr.  J.  M.  Ludlow's  little  hook,  "  Woman's  Work  in  the 
Church"  (Macmillans,  1865). 


230  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvii. 

adoption  in  many  churches,  since  1872,  of  the  rotary  plan, 
by  which  a  part  of  the  session  retires  from  office  at  the 
close  of  a  specified  term  and  is  replaced  by  fresh  election, 
is  quite  in  harmony  with  the  present  status  of  affairs, 
though  not  with  history.  It  was  strenuously  opposed  by 
Albert  Barnes  when  under  discussion. 

The  equal  vote  of  the  ruling  eldership  with  the  ministry 
on  all  questions  which  come  before  the  courts  of  the  church 
is  an  essential  feature  of  Presbyterian  government,  but  it 
has  become  anomalous  through  the  changed  relation  of 
the  elder  to  the  church.  The  elder  of  past  days  was  gen- 
erally a  man  who  was  not  greatly  inferior  to  his  pastor  in 
doctrinal  and  Scriptural  knowledge.  He  had  given  close 
study  to  theological  questions.  He  had  read,  if  not  widely, 
yet  attentively  and  with  reflection.  He  was  usually  as  com- 
petent as  his  minister  to  pass  judgment  on  questions  which 
came  before  Synod  and  Presbytery.  The  young  minister, 
indeed,  lived  in  a  certain  fear  of  him  and  of  other  keen 
theologians  of  both  sexes  among  his  hearers,  who  were 
sound  on  **  the  fundamentals."  This  is  more  commonly 
true  now  of  the  smaller  Presbyterian  bodies  than  the  larger. 
In  ordinary  cases  the  elder  of  to-day  is  far  less  fully  pre- 
pared to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  questions  which  agitate 
the  church.  He  has  been  too  busy  with  other  pursuits  to 
even  attempt  to  keep  abreast  of  the  more  thorough  and 
professional  training  of  the  ministry.  He  either  takes  the 
safe  course  of  voting  as  his  minister  does,  or  he  is  at  the 
mercy  of  party  leaders,  who  catch  him  with  party  watch- 
words, progressive  or  alarmist,  and  commit  him  to  policies 
whose  ultimate  bearing  he  is  too  busy  to  understand. 

In  the  absence  of  efficient  assistance  from  his  session, 
the  pastor  of  our  day  ordinarily  has  his  hands  full  to  over- 
flowing. He  has  to  do  all  the  preaching,  all  the  pastoral 
visiting,  all  the  presiding,  all  the  work  of  administration 


POLYPRAGMATIC  PASTORS.  23  1 

except  the  financial,  and  often  a  good  deal  of  that.  While 
his  associates  in  the  session  too  generally  hide  their  talents 
in  a  napkin,  he  has  to  trade  with  his  beyond  what  their 
amount  justifies,  and  the  result  sometimes  is  bankruptcy^  w^ 
Fitted  to  do  one  thing  well,  he  has  to  do  many  things 
badly,  and  thus  awakens  the  criticism  which  ends  in  a  ter- 
mination of  the  pastoral  relation.  Under  such  a  system  it 
is  not  wonderful  that  the  average  duration  of  the  pastorate 
grows  shorter.  It  is  a  striking  evidence  of  their  adaptabil- 
ity that  our  ministers  hold  one  church  as  long  as  they  do. 

The  evil  is  all  the  graver  because  of  the  prevalence  of 
the  notion  that  each  church,  however  large,  needs  a  single 
minister  and  no  more.  In  our  large  cities  it  is  as  excep- 
tional to  find  a  large  Episcopal  congregation  which  has  but 
one  minister  in  charge,  as  it  is  to  find  a  Presbyterian  church 
which  has  more  than  its  pastor.  It  is  not  want  of  means 
which  is  in  the  way,  but  the  conception  of  the  pastoral 
of^ce,  which  exacts  that  each  of  its  occupants  shall  show 
himself  equal  to  all  the  multifarious  requirements  which 
have  gathered  around  it,  and  that  there  shall  be  no  divis- 
ion of  labor  among  them.  Hence  the  practice  of  multi- 
plying small  city  churches  beyond  all  need,  each  with  its 
one  polypragmatic  pastor.  For  a  similar  reason  it  has 
been  found  dif^cult  to  effect  any  arrangement  to  exempt 
even  a  distinguished  preacher  from  pastoral  labor,  however 
unfitted  he  may  be  to  undertake  it.  In  one  noteworthy 
case  the  people  ceased  to  attend  church,  and  gave  as  their " 
reason,  "  We  want  our  pastor  to  preach  to  us."  The  pas- 
tor was  a  man  of  little  note,  associated  with  one  of  the 
greatest  preachers  of  the  age. 

Closely  related  to  this  demand  for  simplification  in  the 
ministry  has  been  a  demand  for  simplicity  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  the  worship  and  forms  of  the  church.  This  as- 
sumes a  Presbyterian  tradition  for  simplicity  of  which  his- 


232  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvii. 

tory  knows  nothing.  The  Kirk  in  its  best  days,  Hke  all 
*'  the  best  Reformed  churches,"  in  all  its  public  services 
exhibited  a  dignity  which  has  now  disappeared.  The  min- 
ister of  the  church  still  wore  his  gown  in  his  pulpit  minis- 
trations, if  not  also  on  the  street.-  He  bore  himself  with 
the  courtly  manner  of  the  old-fashioned  gentleman,  and 
was  received  by  his  people  with  a  deference  which  recog- 
nized the  greatness  of  the  office  with  which  he  was  clothed. 
His  visits  to  their  homes,  like  Edward  Irving's  to  his  Glas- 
gow and  London  flocks,  were  not  "calls  "  of  neighborly 
familiarity,  but  the  coming  and  going  of  one  who  left  an 
atmosphere  of  grace  and  consecration  in  the  household. 
The  children  never  heard  him  lightly  spoken  of,  not  for 
his  own  sake  so  much  as  that  of  his  office  and  his  influ- 
ence with  them. 

In  the  public  services  there  was  a  lofty  gravity  which 
became  the  house  of  God.  The  congregation  not  only  lis- 
tened, but,  Bible  in  hand,  they  accompanied  their  pastor  in 
his  references  to  the  teachings  of  the  Word.  They  arose 
and  stood  in  prayer,  though  they  sat  in  singing.  The 
elders  occupied  the  elders'  pew,  close  to  the  pulpit,  as  in 
the  Reformed  churches  of  America  still.  They  were  chosen 
from  the  men  of  weight  and  spirituality  of  character,  and 
many  are  the  testimonies  to  the  deep  impression  they 
made  on  the  young  of  the  flock  by  their  paternal  interest 
in  candidates  for  the  communion  or  for  the  ministry. 

Communion  seasons  came  too  seldom — generally  twice 
a  year  only — but  they  were  times  of  solemnity  and  not 
of  modern  simplicity.  The  "  token,"  whose  history  goes 
back  to  the  subapostolic  ages,  symbolized  the  communi- 
cant's pledged  friendship  with  his  Lord.  The  language  of 
the  "  action-sermon,"  the  barring  or  fencing  of  the  tables, 
the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  rite,  were  more  suggestive 
of  the  presence  of  a  great  spiritual  mystery  than  the  ritual 


A    PRESBYTERIAN  LITURGY.  233 

of  Canterbury  or  even  Rome.  Yet  the  long  tables,  draped 
with  white,  bore  witness  to  the  original  character  of  the 
feast  spread  by  the  Master  for  his  church,  rather  than  to  a 
clerical  ceremonial  which  the  people  only  were  admitted  to 
share  in.  ^ 

To-day  these  things  are  hardly  to  be  found,  except 
among  our  high-church  brethren,  the  Covenanters.  Their 
disappearance  elsewhere  has  been  a  loss  of  weight  in  im- 
pression, and  of  a  sense  of  the  true  purposes  of  worship. 
Man  has  grown  more  and  God  less  in  our  assembUes. 

The  discontent  with  the  present  status  of  congregational 
worship  has  produced  a  feeling  in  favor  of  a  liturgy.  Drs. 
Greene,  Miller,  and  Krebs  among  the  earlier  leaders  of  the 
General  Assembly,  and  the  Hodges  at  a  later  date,  declined 
to  express  any  disapproval  of  liturgic  forms,  although  they 
agreed  in  disapproving  of  their  imposition  as  a  fixed  order 
obligatory  upon  all,  and  to  the  exclusion  of  free  prayer. 
The  Hodges  felt  a  warm  interest  in  the  movement  repre- 
sented by  the  Church  Service  Society  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  and  in  its  Euchologion.  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  himself 
prepared  a  book  of  forms  for  special  services,  which,  how- 
ever, does  not  show  him  to  have  possessed  extraordinary 
gifts  as  a  liturgist. 

In  1855  the  late  Dr.  Charles  W.  Baird  formally  opened 
the  discussion  of  the  question  in  his  '' Eutaxia ;  or.  The 
Presbyterian  Liturgies,"  in  which  he  showed  that  the 
sister-churches  of  Italy,  Switzerland,  France,  Germany, 
Holland,  England,  and  Scotland,  in  earlier  times,  had  been 
liturgic  in  practice.  He  drew  from  the  archives  of  the 
church  the  liturgies  which  bear  the  great  names  of  Calvin 
and  Knox,  and  interpreted  their  devout  accents  to  Ameri- 
can ears.  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  reviewed  the  work  in  the 
**  Princeton  Review"  for  July,  1855,  ^^^d  deplored  the 
want  of  a  Presbyterian  prayer-book  to  serve  both  as  a 


234  ^-^^   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chak  xvii. 

guide  in  the  exercise  of  free  prayer  and  as  a  substitute  for  it 
on  proper  occasions.  He  deplored  the  sometimes  slovenly 
and  frequently  inappropriate  fashion  in  which  this  part  of 
worship  was  conducted,  and  especially  the  want  of  a  suit- 
able communion  service,  declaring  that  the  Presbyterian 
Church  "  has  suffered  more  than  can  well  be  estimated 
from  these  faults  in  the  conduct  of  her  simple  services, 
and  from  failing  to  supply  her  children  with  those  aids  for 
religious  worship  which  their  exigencies  demand  "  in  the 
absence  of  a  minister.  "  If  God  w^ould  put  it  into  the 
heart  of  some  man  of  large  experience  in  the  pastoral  life, 
familiar  with  the  literature  of  the  subject  and  with  the  in- 
tellectual gifts  the  work  demands,  to  compile  a  book  con- 
taining prayers  for  public  worship,  and  forms  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacraments,  marriages,  and  funerals,  he 
would  do  the  church  a  great  service,  whether  the  book 
ever  received  the  sanction  of  our  ecclesiastical  judicatures 
or  not." 

In  the  next  decade  a  liturgy  was  actually  adopted  by 
St.  Peter's  Church  in  Rochester,  and  used  until  suppressed 
by  the  new-school  Presbytery.  In  1864  Dr.  Charles  W.. 
Shields,  then  of  Philadelphia,  now  of  Princeton  College, 
reproduced  the  English  Book  of  Common  Prayer  in  the 
shape  which  Richard  Baxter  and  the  other  English  Pres- 
byterians in  1 66 1  declared  would  be  satisfactory  to  them, 
and  pressed  its  claim  to  supply  a  basis  for  unity  in  w^or- 
ship  among  Protestants.  In  1883  Professor  S.  M.  Hopkins, 
of  Auburn  Seminary,  published  a  liturgy  for  the  use  of 
Presbyterian  churches.  Somewhat  earlier  the  late  John 
Neill,  M.D.,  of  Philadelphia,  tried  to  establish  a  John  Knox 
Society  for  the  promotion  or  restoration  of  liturgic  wor- 
ship.^ 

1  See  Dr.  Charles  W.  Baird's  "  Eutaxia;  or,  The  Presbyterian  Liturgies," 
New  York,  Dodd,  1855  ;  "A  Book  of  Public  Prayer,  Compiled  from  the  Au- 


INNOVATIONS  IN   WORSHIP.  '  235 

Parallel  with  this  discussion  has  gone  forward  a  process 
of  change  which  has  put  an  end  to  uniformity  in  worship, 
and  has  set  the  Directory  of  i  788  aside  in  many,  if  not  most, 
of  the  churches.  The  Lord's  Prayer  has  been  restored 
to  the  place  given  it  by  the  Westminster  Divines,  and  is 
repeated  in  unison.  So  are  the  Apostles'  Creed,  selections 
from  the  Psalms  and  other  parts  of  Scripture.  A  formal 
offertory  has  taken  the  place  of  the  collection.  There  is  a 
silent  pause  after  the  benediction,  and  a  free  use  of  chants, 
by  the  choir  at  least.  In  other  cases  we  see  a  free  use  of 
spontaneous  symbolism,  not  always  in  the  best  taste,  but  a 
witness  to  the  growing  need  of  appeal  to  the  imagination, 
no  less  than  to  the  understanding  and  the  emotions,  in 
true  worship.  For  no  worship  is  really  adequate  to  human 
needs  whose  methods  leave  any  province  of  our  manifold 
human  nature  out  of  account.  God  has  made  us  the  most 
complex  of  his  creatures,  and  calls  for  a  response  to  his 
goodness  from  every  side  of  our  human  nature. 

It  is  but  natural  that  much  of  the  change  this  restlessness 
has  led  to  has  not  been  for  the  better.  The  prominence 
given  to  the  quartet  choir  in  our  city  churches,  often  lead- 
ing to  the  relinquishment  of  the  singing  to  them,  and  the 
time  devoted  to  choir  pieces  and  organ  voluntaries,  con- 
stitute a  censurable  departure  not  only  from  Presbyterian 
history,  but  from  the  very  idea  of  congregational  worship. 
It  is  an  importation  of  the  methods  of  the  concert-hall  into 
the  church,  w^hich  is  offensive  both  to  good  taste  and  to 

thorized  Formularies  of  Worship  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as  Prepared  by  the 
Reformers,  Calvin,  Knox,  and  others,  with  Supplementary  Forms,"  New  York, 
Scribner,  1868;  Dr.  Charles  W.  Shields's  "The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and 
Administration  of  the  Sacraments,  and  other  Rites'~rmd  Ceremonies  of  the 
Church,  as  Amended  by  the  Westminster  Divines  in  the  Royal  Commission 
of  1661,  and  in  Agreement  with  the  Directory  for  Public  Worship  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States,"  Philadelphia,  1864,  New  York, 
1883;  also  his  "  Liturgia  Expurgata,"  Philadelphia,  1864,  third  edition, 
New  York,  1884;  Professor  S.  M.  I Toj^kins's  "A  General  Liturgy  and  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,"  New  York,  Barnes,  1883. 


236  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvii. 

devout  instincts.  Not  so  bad,  but  certainly  not  laudable, 
has  been  the  introduction  of  an  undignified  and  unsuitable 
music  into  the  Sunday-school,  the  praise-service,  and  even, 
in  some  cases,  into  the  stated  services  of  worship.  It  is 
undeniable  that  the  school  of  music  begun  by  Philip  Phil- 
Hps  and  developed  by  Ira  D.  Sankey  has  led  multitudes  to 
sing  who  otherwise  would  not  have  done  it.  The  gain, 
however,  is  attended  by  a  loss  so  grave  as  to  justify  the 
church  in  setting  her  face  against  it.  The  power  of  asso- 
ciation is  nowhere  more  in  evidence  than  in  the  influence 
which  music  exercises.  The  association  of  the  greatest 
and  most  afl"ecting  truths  with  words  commonly  paltry 
and  often  vulgar,  and  with  music  often  more  suitable  to  a 
dance-hall  than  to  the  house  of  God,  is  a  chief  among  the 
many  influences  which  have  been  robbing  religion  of  its 
severity  and  God  of  his  awfulness.  Popularity  is  too  dearly 
bought  at  such  a  price. 

More  promising  of  good  is  the  growing  taste  for  a  music 
at  once  popular  and  excellent  in  quality,  which  the  Eng- 
lish churches  have  fostered.  The  names  of  Dykes,  Hullah, 
Wesley,  Barnby,  Sullivan,  indicate  that  as  yet  it  is  an  ex- 
otic in  America;  but  its  amount  in  the  newer  hymnaries  is 
increasing  steadily,  and  it  is  to  be  expected  that  a  school 
of  this  character  will  arise  among  us,  and  will  emancipate 
it  from  a  certain  stiffness  which  is  alien  to  our  national 
character.  The  good  work  done  by  Lowell  Mason  and 
Thomas  S.  Hastings  for  the  American  churches  entitles 
them  to  lasting  gratitude ;  but  they  worked  for  an  age  in 
which  musical  culture  was  making  its  beginnings  in  Amer- 
ica ;  and,  as  Browning  says,  each  age  must  produce  its  own 
music. 

The  proper  spiritual  life  of  the  congregation  differs  from 
that  of  the  past  in  showing  neither  the  denominational 
distinctness  and  uniformity  nor  the  doctrinal  exactitude  of 


LOSS  AND  GAIN  IN  SPIRITUAL   LIFE.  237 

former  times.  The  lines  and  bounds  of  spiritual  affinity 
become  less  distinct  through  greater  freedom  of  intercourse 
and  interchange  with  other  Christians.  Presbyterians  may 
still  commit  the  Shorter  Catechism  to  memory  in  their 
childhood,  but  their  riper  years  are  nourished  by  writers 
of  so  many  schools  that  that  famous  text-book  of  highly 
abstract  theology  generally  falls  into  the  background  of 
the  mind.  They  still,  by  force  of  heredity,  are  more  in- 
terested in  doctrinal  questions  than  are  their  fellow- Chris- 
tians generally,  but  in  a  dififerent  way  from  their  fathers. 
There  is  a  loss  in  this  syncretism  by  which  the  thoughts  of 
A  Kempis  and  Pascal,  Keble  and  Newman,  Robertson  and 
Kingsley,  lie  side  by  side  with  the  tenets  of  their  vernacu- 
lar Calvinism.  In  minds  of  the  less  logical  kind  the  result 
is  a  great  deal  of  confusion  and  irresolution,  with  a  disposi- 
tion to  keep  open  house  for  whatever  offers  itself  as  new. 
But  there  is  a  gain  also  in  the  enrichment  of  the  spiritual 
life  from  the  fruits  of  other  fields,  which  are  yet  the  Mas- 
ter's domain.  The  hymnaries  of  the  church  exemplify 
this  gain.  Were  all  that  is  not  from  the  pen  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic  hymnodists,  from  Baxter  to  Bonar,  eliminated  from 
the  selection,  the  result  would  be  a  great  impoverishment. 
A  decided  gain  to  the  spiritual  life  of  the  modern 
churches  has  been  in  gifts  bestowed  upon  them  in  this 
age  which  are  not  seen  so  distinctly  in  the  past.  One  of 
these  is  the  new  sense  of  intimate  personal  communion  with 
the  Saviour  in  what  some  old  writers  call  '*  the  process  of 
his  life  and  death,  resurrection  and  ascension."  Beginning 
from  the  revivals  of  1857-59  in  both  the  British  Islands 
and  America,  there  has  been  a  growing  dissatisfaction  with 
the  merely  jural  conception  of  man's  redemption  in  Christ, 
and  a  pressing  on  "  to  know  him,  and  the  power  of  his 
resurrection,  and  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  becom.ing 
conformed  unto  his  death."      Christians  are  seeking  after 


238  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xvii. 

the  deepest  spiritual  significance  of  the  mysteries  of  death 
to  sin  and  rising  again  to  righteousness,  as  made  possible 
to  us  through  fellowship  with  him  in  all  he  was  and  did. 
There  is  no  resting  in  salvation  as  a  judicial  transaction 
liberating  men  from  the  penalties  of  sin.  The  inner  life 
of  conflict  with  evil,  and  victory  through  faith,  is  seen  to 
be  associated  with  the  great  transactions  recorded  in  the 
Gospels  in  a  way  not  to  be  expressed  to  the  understanding 
in  the  phrases  of  any  philosophy,  or  even  theology,  that 
has  been  formulated.  Hence  the  welcome  shown  to  those 
mystical  writers  whose  bold  utterances  express  this  truth 
in  parable  and  paradox. 

This  new  phase  of  Christian  experience  certainly  de- 
prives the  law  of  condemnation  of  the  prominence  which 
the  teachers  of  the  Great  Awakening  gave  it  in  the  ordo 
sahttis.  Hence  the  complaints  from  the  representatives  of 
that  school  that  there  is  no  such  *'  thorough  law- work  " 
in  modern  conversions  as  in  those  of  past  generations. 
Sinners  come  to  the  rest  of  faith  without  such  maddening 
visions  of  their  own  depravity,  such  prostrating  sense  of 
the  sinfulness  of  sin,  such  readiness  to  accept  even  damna- 
tion at  God's  hands  as  their  just  reward,  as  were  seen  in 
1735-42,  or  in  1800-19.  This  is  true;  but  if  these  tre- 
mendous emotions  be  the  indispensable  prerequisites  of 
the  Christian  life,  there  is  no  age  of  the  church  before  the 
rise  of  Pietism  in  Germany  which  must  not  be  pronounced 
fatally  deficient.  Even  the  apostolic  age  and  that  of  the 
Reformation  will  not  satisfy  these  conditions.  It  is  true 
that  Luther  went  through  experiences  not  less  harrowing 
in  the  days  of  his  ignorance  ;  but  he  never  looked  for  them 
in  his  own  people,  who  had  been  brought  by  easier  ways 
into  the  light  of  the  gospel.  And  he,  like  Calvin,  describes 
repentance  for  sin,  not  as  an  achievement  to  be  got  through 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE   AND    P'/ORR'.  2J9 

and  done  with  before  exercising  faith,  but  as  a  Hfelong 
and  deepening  experience  resulting  from  faith. 

This  new  view  is  carrying  the  church  back  into  sym- 
pathy with  the  Reformers  in  the  matter  of  the  way  in 
which  men  enter  upon  the  new  hfe.  The  desire  grows 
less  for  sharp  crises  of  transition  from  conscious  enmity  to 
conscious  friendship  with  God.  The  principle  of  Christian 
Nurture  enunciated  by  Horace  Bushnell  in  1847 — viz.,  that 
a  child  brought  up  under  Christian  influence  should  never 
know  a  time  when  love  to  God  is  not  an  active  principle 
in  its  life — is  displacing  the  old  assumption  that  even  the 
offspring  of  the  godly  are  the  born  enemies  of  God  and 
must  await  the  crisis  of  conversion.  In  this  respect  the 
church  no  longer  presents  the  unity  it  once  did  in  its 
practical  theology.  In  some  quarters  the  assumptions  of 
the  Awakening  still  control  her  action.  In  others  the 
newer  view,  which  is  also  the  older,  has  obtained  prac- 
tical recognition,  and  the  demand  for  conscious  conversion 
is  no  longer  made  of  the  children  of  the  church. 

Another  grace  bestowed  on  the  modern  church,  and  one 
closely  connected  with  this  new  sense  of  direct  relation  to 
Christ,  is  the  spirit  of  helpfulness.  The  neighborhood  of 
the  Master  is  found  to  be  no  place  for  idlers  in  the  vine- 
yard. So  there  has  been  a  development  of  spontaneous 
activity  in  the  churches,  which,  as  has  been  shown,  finds 
itself  badly  suited  with  room  in  the  church  as  popularly 
understood  and  organized.  The  new  wine,  in  many  in- 
stances, has  burst  the  old  bottles. 

With  this  also  has  come  a  peril  of  doing  and  overdoing, 
without  the  vocation  and  the  leading  which  must  come 
before  right  spontaneous  action.  Unfortunate,  too,  has 
been  the  growing  disposition  to  propose  that  the  church 
shall  take  the  whole  social  burden  on  her  shoulders,  and 


240  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chai-.  xvii. 

hold  herself  responsible  for  the  right  conduct  of  affairs 
which  belong  properly  to  the  state.  Into  the  sphere  of 
state  action — the  sphere  of  rights  and  of  law — the  church 
may  not  enter,  except  as  announcing  the  great  principles 
of  social  duty.  She  is  not  made  a  judge  or  a  divider  be- 
tween rich  and  poor  or  between  labor  and  capital.  Nor 
is  it  hers  to  decide  by  what  methods  the  state  is  to  deal 
with  the  problems  of  slavery  or  intemperance  or  the  social 
evil,  although  she  has  the  right  to  insist  that  they  shall 
not  be  ignored.  She  can  undertake  these  things  only  at 
the  sacrifice  of  far  higher  interests,  at  the  peril  of  forfeit- 
ing her  proper  spiritual  influence. 

The  institutional  church,  which  has  grown  up  in  our 
great  cities  as  the  result  of  this  new  interest  in  social  prob- 
lems, is  a  sign  of  good.  It  is  a  return  to  apostolic  ideals 
in  many  respects,  especially  in  getting  rid  of  that  severance 
of  the  spiritual  from  the  material  in  ministering  to  human 
needs  which  stands  in  such  contrast  to  all  the  precedents 
of  the  New  Testament.  It  may  result  in  a  restoration  of 
the  manifold  activities  of  the  churches  of  the  first  days, 
and  thus  reclaim  for  the  gospel  the  gracious  activities  to 
which  it  gave  the  first  impulse.  No  doubt  it  will  make 
many  mistakes  in  the  process,  and  learn  by  its  mistakes. 

The  discipline  of  the  modern  church  over  its  own  mem- 
bers has  become  a  matter  of  some  difficulty,  in  view  of 
the  church's  divisions,  and  the  readiness  of  many  of  these 
to  open  their  arms  to  persons  whose  stay  in  the  others  has 
become  uncomfortable.  In  some  of  our  religious  bodies 
there  is  hardly  a  pretense  of  exercising  discipline  over 
their  lay  members.  In  others  it  is  abandoned  to  the  judg- 
ment of  each  congregation,  and  can  rise  no  higher  than 
the  local  and  temporary  sense  of  propriety  in  each.  The 
Presbyterian  churches  always  have  confessed  their  respon- 
sibility,  both  local  and  collective,  for  seeing  that  the  walk 


CHURCH  DISCIPLINE  AND    UNITY.  24! 

and  conversation  of  their  people  is  according  to  godliness. 
The  scope  of  this  responsibility  has  been  narrowed  and  its 
efficiency  weakened  by  the  notion  that  none  but  the  com- 
municants in  the  church  are  its  members ;  and  even  when 
there  has  been  a  disposition  to  enlarge  the  conception,  it 
has  been  too  generally  by  including  merely  "  the  children 
of  the  church"  who,  through  youth  or  indecision,  have 
not  yet  become  communicants.  In  this  respect  the  Con- 
gregationalist  conception  of  the  church  has  displaced  that 
which  is  distinctively  Presbyterian,  to  the  diminution  of 
the  church's  social  influence,  and  to  the  injury  of  her  non- 
communicant  members.  The  present  tendency  to  assert 
for  the  church  a  firmer  and  broader  influence  will  help  to 
correct  this,  and  will  bring  even  our  Independent  brethren 
to  see  that  the  demand  for  a  church-membership  individu- 
ally assured  of  their  conversion  does  not  place  the  church 
in  a  position  fitted  to  meet  the  social  need,  and  is  not  in 
harmony  with  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament.  Soci- 
ology promises  to  play  havoc  with  ecclesiology  of  that 
type. 

In  view  of  these  openings  toward  a  new  development 
we  cannot  regard  the  American  church,  either  as  mean- 
ing a  congregation  or  embracing  a  "denomination,"  as  an 
accomplished  fact.  Thus  far,  indeed,  there  has  been  little 
that  is  distinctly  American  in  our  religious  life,  and  that 
little  not  the  most  laudable.  All  our  sects,  except  a  few 
to  which  we  refuse  the  Christian  name,  are  of  European 
origin.  We  have  been  singularly  barren  in  ecclesiastical 
originality,  while  original  in  nearly  all  other  fields  of 
national  Hfe.  The  national  instinct,  indeed,  has  hardly 
touched  the  churches,  as  yet,  with  its  unifying  power. 
We  are  still  in  the  colonial  stage,  abounding  in  European 
elements  of  all  sorts,  but  not  yet  American. 

The  manner  in  which  the  political  unity  of  the  nation 


242  THE   PRESS  Yl'ERIANS.  L<-"hap.  xvii. 

came  about  probably  foreshadows  the  solution  of  the 
problem  of  Christian  unity,  which  already  presses  upon 
our  Protestant  churches.  It  will  not  be  by  sacrificing  the 
wealth  of  variety  in  the  present  order  (or  seeming  chaos) 
of  our  ecclesiastical  life,  but  by  some  elastic  method,  like 
our  federal  Union,  which  will  leave  room  for  variety  in  the 
types  of  worship  and  of  life,  and  yet  prevent  or  avoid  the 
breach  of  unity.  We  shall  not  leave  behind  us  all  the  past 
has  bestowed,  and  attain  to  unity  by  the  process  of  sim- 
plification in  creed  and  worship,  but  by  finding  room  and 
use  in  mutual  help  for  all  that  God  has  given  us.  And 
when  that  day  comes,  soon  or  late,  there  is  no  church  that 
will  have  more  to  bring  than  our  own,  and  none  that  will 
be  welcomed  more  heartily  into  the  new  fellowship  by  its 
sister-churches. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

THE    REVISION    CONTROVERSY. 

Half  a  century  ago  the  great  controversies  were  waged 
between  our  religious  households.  It  was  church  against 
church,  or  sect  against  sect.  When  a  collision  of  opinion 
arose  within  a  church,  it  generally  resulted  in  a  division, 
or  in  the  formation  of  a  new  sect  to  represent  the  worsted 
principle.  Our  ecclesiastical  politics  had  the  simplicity  and 
directness  seen  in  an  ancient  Greek  city,  where  the  victori- 
ous party  generally  expelled  the  minority,  and  thus  secured 
an  effective  unanimity.  It  was  a  common  plea  with  those 
who  expressed  their  dissent  from  the  position  taken  by 
their  own  church,  that  they  should  leave  it  in  peace,  and 
either  seek  fellowship  in  some  body  which  agreed  with 
them,  or  form  a  new  one  for  themselves. 

This  breaking  up  religious  communions  "  with  a  light 
heart  "  is  become  less  the  habit  of  our  American  Christians. 
It  begins  to  be  recognized  that  doctrinal  uniformity  is  not 
the  most  precious  possession  a  church  can  claim,  and  may 
be  bought  at  too  high  a  price.  What  once  would  have  been 
separate  sects  begin  to  be  parties  within  the  churches,  and 
the  discussions  which  would  have  been  washed  across  sec- 
tarian  lines  are  now  carried  on  in  a  more  brotherly  fashion 
within  the  same  body. 

It  is  noticeable  that  the  questions  which  perplex  one 
church  are  those  which  are  pressing  for  an  answer  in  some 
shape  in  the  others  also.      All  the  churches  are  feeling  the 

243 


244  ^-^^  PRESBYTERIANS,  [Chap,  xviii. 

Strain  of  readjusting  their  theological  formulas  to  the  new 
conclusions  of  history  and  criticism,  sociology  and  biology. 
All  have  to  decide  how  far  the  new  scholarship  demands  a 
new  attitude  toward  the  Scriptures ;  how  far  the  Develop- 
ment theory  may  be  accepted  as  explaining  the  origin  of 
man  and  of  society,  without  imperiling  positions  essential 
to  the  Christian  conception  of  human  spirituality  and  divine 
Providence.  All  have  to  say  how  far  the  newer  ethics 
oblige  us  to  reconsider  our  ethical  ideals,  and  thus  to  modify 
our  conception  of  God.  And  even  when  the  shape  taken 
by  the  discussion  is  one  which  is  peculiar  to  the  individual 
church,  the  wide  sympathy  excited  in  other  churches  with 
one  or  both  of  the  parties  to  the  controversy  shows  that 
the  real  issue  is  one  which  is  common  to  the  churches. 

This  was  eminently  true  of  the  discussion  as  to  the  re- 
vision of  the  Westminster  standards,  which  was  sprung 
upon  the  church  by  the  General  Assembly  of  1889.  It 
can  hardly  be  said  to  have  been  foreshadowed  by  any 
previous  action  on  any  one's  part  on  this  side  of  the  ocean. 
The  interest  in  the  question  of  subscription,  which  had 
been  fanned  into  life  by  the  discussions  previous  to  the  re- 
union of  1869-70,  had  fairly  died  out.  None  of  the  trials 
for  heresy,  except  for  a  brief  moment  that  of  Professor 
Swing,  had  caused  it  to  revive.  No  liberal  was  asserting 
the  need  of  larger  liberty  of  construction  ;  no  conservative 
was  urging  greater  strictness.  There  seemed  to  be,  in 
fact,  a  distinct  languor  in  reference  to  all  such  matters ;  and 
Dr.  Archibald  A.  Hodge's  course  of  popular  lectures  on 
theological  themes  had  given  unusual  satisfaction  even  to 
those  who  differed  from  the  Princeton  type  of  doctrine. 
The  agitation  as  to  the  "  Higher  Criticism,"  which  had 
been  going  on  in  the  pages  of  the  **  Presbyterian  Review," 
was  quite  another  affair,  and  stood  in  no  vital  relation  to 
the  question  now  raised. 


SCOTTISH  RELAXATION.  245 

It  was  in  the  British  churches  that  the  alteration  of  the 
church's  relation  to  the  Westminster  standards  was  pro- 
posed. First  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland 
— the  church  which  had  sent  its  missionaries  to  America  be- 
cause unconditional  subscription  to  the  Confession  of  Faith 
was  not  required  by  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia — adopted 
in  1879,  after  prolonged  debate,  a  *'  Declaratory  Act  as  to 
the  Sense  in  which  the  Confession  is  to  be  Understood," 
which  shifted  the  emphasis  from  the  points  peculiar  to  Cal- 
vinism to  those  in  which  Calvinists  are  in  agreement  with 
other  Christians.  Next  the  Free  Church,  which  refused 
recognition  to  the  new-school  church  of  America  as  un- 
sound in  its  Calvinism,  was  planning  a  similar  declaration 
as  to  the  sense  in  which  it  required  subscription  to  the 
standards.  Lastly  the  newly  vigorous  Presbyterian  Church 
of  England  was  adopting  in  1889  briefer  Articles  of  Faith, 
twenty-four  in  number,  as  a  summary  of  the  Westminster 
Confession  of  Faith,  to  which  ministers  and  elders  might- 
assent  at  their  ordination. 

These  examples  acted  the  more  directly  upon  the  Ameri- 
can church  because  of  the  closer  relations  which  had  been 
fostered  by  the  Reformed  AUiance,  and  through  the  vigor- 
ous theological  literature  created  by  the  young  Free  Church 
ministry.  For  years  there  was  a  silent  observation  of  what 
was  happening  abroad,  and  a  feeling  that  the  same  problem 
must  be  solved  in  America  also.  Sound,  but  not  ultra,  con- 
servatives, like  Dr.  Archibald  A.  Hodge,  did  not  hesitate 
to  express  a  willingness  to  go  as  far,  at  least,  as  the  British 
churches  were  going  for  the  relief  of  troubled  consciences. 
He  reprinted  the  Declaratory  Act  of  the  United  Presby- 
teiian  Synod  in  his  "Commentary  on  the  Confession  of 
Faith"  (Philadelphia,  1885),  and  he  told  me  that  he  saw 
no  objection  to  the  same  step  being  taken  by  the  American 
church. 


246  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

The  air,  indeed,  was  growing  electric,  but  the  shock 
which  brought  down  the  avalanche  came  from  the  conserv- 
ative Presbytery  of  Philadelphia.  It  sent  a  memorial  to 
the  General  Assembly  asking  it  to  revise  the  proof-texts 
printed  with  the  Shorter  Catechism,  which  a  sounder  exe- 
gesis had  shown  to  be  not  always  the  best  for  the  purpose. 
To  this  there  was  no  great  objection  from  any  quarter,  and 
the  work  has  since  been  done.  But  the  memorial,  by  its 
very  success,  suggested  a  bolder  step.  In  the  General 
Assembly  of  1889  memorials  were  presented  from  fifteen 
Presbyteries  asking  it  to  take  steps  toward  a  revision  of 
the  Westminster  Confession.  The  Assembly,  without  a 
division,  resolved  to  transmit  an  overture  to  the  Presby- 
teries asking  their  sense  of  the  propriety  of  attempting  a 
revision,  and  what  changes  they  thought  necessary. 

The  constitutionality  of  the  overture  was  challenged, 
especially  by  the  lawyers  in  the  conservative  wing  of  the 
church.  The  Adopting  Act  of  1789  (p.  65)  had  declared 
that  the  Confession  should  be  "  unalterable,  unless  two 
thirds  of  the  Presbyteries  shall  propose  alterations  or 
amendments,  and  [these]  shall  be  agreed  to  and  enacted 
by  the  General  Assembly."  It  was  claimed  that  this  re- 
served the  initiative  to  the  Presbyteries,  and  that  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  could  not  move  in  the  matter  until  two  thirds 
of  the  Presbyteries  invited  it  to  do  so.  The  action,  how- 
ever, of  the  Synod  of  1787  did  not  vitiate  the  overture  of 
1889,  which  proposed  and  sanctioned  no  alteration  in  the 
Confession,  but  merely  suggested  to  the  Presbyteries  that 
now  was  the  time  to  do  it  unitedly  if  they  desired  to.  A 
much  bolder  course,  indeed,  had  been  taken  by  the  As- 
sembly of  1803,  which  had  directed  one  of  its  committees 
"  to  consider  whether  any,  and,  if  any,  what,  alterations 
ought  to  be  made  in  the  Confession  of  Faith." 

The  response  to  the  overture  from  the  Presbyteries  of 


FRIENDS  AXD   FOES   OF  REVISION.  247 

the  church  was  surprising  both  in  the  extent  of  the  desire 
for  a  change  it  ehcited  and  the  emphasis  with  which  it  was 
expressed.  Up  to  the  opening  of  the  question  there  must 
have  been  a  steady  growth  of  dissatisfaction  which  had 
found  no  utterance.  Not  only  among  new-school  men  and 
among  the  younger  ministers  was  this  shown,  but  in  all 
classes.  Dr.  Henry  J.  van  Dyke,  who  had  made  no  secret 
of  his  sympathy  with  the  "Declaration  and  Testimony" 
movement,  Drs.  James  McCosh  and  J.  T.  Duffield  of 
Princeton  College,  Dr.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  Dr.  Henry  C. 
McCook,  Dr.  William  O.  Campbell,  and  other  old-school 
men,  were  as  emphatic  as  Drs.  Philip  SchafT,  Howard 
Crosby,  E.  R.  Craven,  Herrick  Johnson,  Stephen  W. 
Dana,  Charles  L.  Thompson,  and  others  on  the  new- 
school  side. 

The  opposition,  however,  was  strong,  able,  and  resolute. 
The  faculty  of  Princeton  Seminary  (Drs.  Green,  Warfield, 
C.  W.  Hodge,  etc.)  were  a  unit  in  opposition,  and  with 
them  stood  Dr.  Patton,  now  the  president  of  the  college. 
They  were  reinforced  by  Dr.  Shedd,  of  Union  Seminary, 
and  Dr.  John  de  Witt,  of  the  Chicago  Seminary.  On  the 
same  side  stood  Drs.  John  Hall,  Samuel  T.  LowTie,  and 
George  P.  Hays,  with  Judge  Drake  of  Missouri,  and  a 
host  of  lawyers  among  the  elders.  Professor  C.  A.  Briggs 
occupied  a  rather  ambiguous  position,  as  fearing  that  the 
Confession  if  revised  might  leave  him  less  sailing- room 
than  he  then  enjoyed.  His  pamphlet,  "Whither?"  cer- 
tainly throws  cold  water  on  the  proposal  to  revise,  although 
he  finally  voted  for  the  New  York  Presbytery's  resolution 
for  "  revision,  understanding  the  word  to  be  used  broadly  as 
comprehending  any  Confessional  changes."  The  direction 
in  which  this  last  expression  points  was  taken  by  twenty- 
one  of  the  Presbyteries,  beginning  with  that  of  Albany, 
which  overtured  the  General  Assembly  for  an  entirely  new 


248  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

Confession  of  Faith.  Others  expressed  their  desire  for  a 
brief  statement  of  the  church's  essential  doctrine,  which 
should  not  supersede,  but  stand  beside,  the  Confession, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  Scotch  Declaratory  Act. 

The  reasons  given  for  revision  were  very  various,  but 
some  were  so  generally  expressed  as  to  permit  of  their 
being  stated  as  the  mind  of  the  church.  It  was  said  that  the 
Confession  was  both  defective  and  excessive  in  statement. 
The  church  had  undergone  great  changes  since  the  West- 
minster divines  had  been  in  session.  It  had  been  led  into 
a  deeper  sense  of  the  love  of  God  to  mankind,  of  the  work 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  of  the  church's  voca- 
tion as  a  missionary  agency.  The  Confession  contained  no 
explicit  recognition  of  the  love  of  God  to  men,  and  no  con- 
fession of  the  church's  duty  toward  the  nations  that  sit  in 
darkness.  It  was  explicit  enough  as  to  controversial  points 
which  were  of  interest  to  the  seventeenth  century.  It  had 
nothing  to  say  of  the  issues  of  modern  debate — of  the  great 
conflict,  for  instance,  between  materiaHstic  science  and  spir- 
itual religion. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  went  beyond  the  teachings  of 
Scripture  in  exphcitly  asserting  the  reprobation  of  the 
wicked,  in  refining  as  to  the  number  of  the  elect  being  inca- 
pable of  increase  or  decrease,  in  speaking  of  *'  elect  infants  " 
with  the  evident  implication  that  some  are  reprobate,  and 
in  declaring  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  be  the  Antichrist. 
The  third  chapter  of  the  Confession,  which  treats  '*  Of 
God's  Eternal  Decree,"  was  the  center  of  the  whole  de- 
bate, the  conservatives  insisting  that  every  part  of  it  was 
either  a  primary  statement  of  the  Calvinistic  principle  or  a 
necessary  inference  from  it,  while  the  revisionists  declined 
to  regard  logically  necessary  inferences  as  necessarily  true. 
This,  indeed,  the  conservatives  conceded  in  refusing  to 
admit  that  if  there  be  "  elect  infants"  there  must  also  be 


OBJECTIONS    J'O  KEVISIOX.  249 

"  reprobate  infants."  The  Westminster  divines,  as  Dr. 
C.  P.  Krauth  showed  in  his  reply  to  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  on 
this  point,  would  not  have  shrunk  from  the  inference.  It 
shows  how  great  the  change  which  has  taken  place  in  our 
conception  of  God's  character,  that  not  a  single  opponent 
of  revision  would  subscribe  to  the  opinion  which  the  au- 
thors of  the  Confession  actually  held  and  meant  to  express. 
Many  of  them  even  refused  to  believe  that  the  dogma  of 
infant  damnation  had  ever  been  held  by  Calvinists. 

The  opponents  of  revision  argued  (i)  that  it  was  dan- 
gerous, as  likely  to  lead  to  changes  which  would  impair 
^*  the  integrity  of  the  Reformed  or  Calvinistic  system" — 
Professor  H.  B.  Smith's  phrase,  of  which  conservatives 
were  now  less  afraid  than  when  they  voted  it  out  of  the 
Basis  of  Union.  It  is  true  that  the  leading  advocates  of 
revision  were  pledged  to  resist  such  changes,  and  were 
ready  to  have  the  Committee  on  Revision  instructed  to 
reject  them  if  proposed.  To  many,  however,  reprobation 
or  preterition  belonged  to  that  integrity,  and  they  were 
alarmed  by  the  urgency  for  its  excision.  They  also  were 
alarmed,  and  with  some  reason,  by  the  wild  and  loose  criti- 
cisms of  the  Confession  in  which  some  of  the  advocates  of 
revision — not  the  leaders,  however — indulged  themselves. 

They  also  (2)  objected  to  revision  as  needless,  since  "  the 
elastic  formula  of  subscription  "  employed  by  the  American 
church  bound  its  office-bearers  only  to  **  sincerely  receive 
and  adopt  the  Confession,  ...  as  containing  the  System 
of  Doctrine  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures."  This,  they 
insisted,  meant  simply  the  Reformed  or  Calvinistic  system 
in  its  integrity,  apart  from  the  special  peculiarities  of  state- 
ment employed  by  the  framers  of  the  Confession.  Sub- 
scription did  not  carry  with  it  unqualified  and  unlimited  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Confession,  but  only  of  its  essential  articles. 
This  plea,  as  Dr.  Craven  showed,  was  not  in  accordance 


2  50  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

with  the  history  of  the  church  and  the  expression  of  its 
mind  by  several  General  Assemblies.  These  identified  the 
Confession  itself  with  **  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures."  The  right  to  even  pubhc  exception 
to  any  statement  in  the  Confession  was  abolished  by  the 
Old  Side  at  the  division  of  1 74 1,  and  was  not  reasserted 
by  the  New  Side  at  the  reunion  of  1758,  with  the  express 
exception  of  "  so  much  of  the  xxiiid  Chapter  as  gives  au- 
thority to  the  civil  magistrate  in  matters  of  religion."  That 
chapter  was  changed  in  1786-87,  thus  eliminating  the  ex- 
ception. The  same  Synod  originated  the  formula  of  assent 
at  ordination  still  in  use :  **  Do  you  sincerely  receive  and 
adopt  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  this  Church,  as  containing 
the  System  of  Doctrine  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures?" 
The  Synod  also  declared  the  books  which  made  up  its  con- 
stitution to  be  "  the  standard  of  our  doctrine,  government, 
discipline,  and  worship."  Neither  it  nor  the  earlier  As- 
semblies regarded  it  as  being  '*  the  system  of  doctrine  "  or 
''  the  standard  of  doctrine  "  mixed  up  with  other  matters. 
The  Assembly  of  1824  described  the  doctrinal  standards 
of  the  church  as  "  a  summary  of  those  divine  truths  which 
are  diffused  throughout  the  sacred  volume,"  and  added: 
"  They  as  a  system  of  doctrine,  therefore,  cannot  be  aban- 
doned, in  our  opinion,  without  an  abandonment  of  the  Word 
of  God."  They  again  speak  of  them  as  ''the  system  of 
doctrine  which  men  of  sound  learning,  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  have  devised  from  the 
oracles  of  the  living  God."  In  a  word,  the  Confession  is 
the  system  to  which  the  church  requires  its  ministers,  elders, 
and  deacons  to  subscribe.  That  system  is  contained  in  it 
in  the  sense  in  which  *'  the  Word  of  God  is  contained  in 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,"  as  ortho- 
dox men  understand  that  formula  and  rationalists  do  not. 
The  liberty  to  except  whatever  is  not  essential  to  the 


THE   ''ELASTIC  EORMULA.''  25  I 

integrity  of  the  Reformed  or  Calvinistic  system  no  more 
exists  legally  than  does  the  liberty  to  except  whatever  is 
not  essential  to  the  evangelical  system  held  by  Calvinists 
and  Arminians  alike.  The  church  has  no  more  drawn  the 
one  line  than  the  other.  The  attempt  to  draw  the  former 
line  was  defeated  in  1869  by  the  conservatives  of  the  old- 
school  church.  Those  ministers  of  the  church,  therefore, 
who  betrayed  their  lack  of  sympathy  with  the  essentials 
of  Calvinism  during  the  debate  on  revision  had  just  the 
same  rights  in  the  church  as  those  who  avowed  their  Cal- 
vinism but  expressed  their  dissent  from  any  of  the  state- 
ments of  the  Confession.  Both  were  there  on  toleration 
simply — a  toleration  growing  out  of  the  impossibility  Dr. 
Charles  Hodge  confessed  (p.  140)  of  requiring  subscription 
to  an  elaborate  Confession,  but  never  officially  defined  as 
to  its  limits.  The  debate  should  have  opened  the  eyes  of 
the  conservatives  to  the  doctrinal  uncertainty  of  the  church's 
position.  The  church's  creed  should  be  one  to  which  the 
ministry  could  subscribe  as  unreservedly  as  the  bridegroom 
answers  in  a  marriage.  This  was  what  was  required  of  her 
ministers  and  elders  in  the  earlier  period  of  her  history. 
When  this  ceased  to  be  possible  with  regard  to  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  the  remedy  should  have  been  found  in  an 
alteration  of  the  document,  and  not  in  treating  the  language 
of  the  act  of  subscription  as  an  ''  elastic  formula,"  when  the 
terms  bear  no  such  sense. 

Much  stress  was  laid  upon  the  fact  (3)  that  nobody  but 
ministers  and  elders  had  to  subscribe  the  Confession,  as 
persons  were  received  to  the  membership  of  the  church 
upon  the  confession  simply  of  their  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 
This  had  not  been  the  practice  of  the  new-school  churches, 
in  which  Congregationalist  influences  had  led  to  the  adop- 
tion of  extended  articles  of  belief  and  covenants  as  terms 
of  communion.     But  it  was  the  law  of  the  reunited  churcli, 


252  THE  PRESBYTERIANS,  [Chap,  xviii. 

and  there  had  been  a  general  conformity  of  local  practice 
to  its  requirements.  When,  therefore,  the  members  of  the 
church  complained  of  any  statement  in  the  Confession, 
and  urged  a  revision,  it  was  answered  that  they  need  not 
trouble  themselves  about  it,  as  they  were  not  required  to 
assent  to  it. 

This,  however,  was  not  the  whole  truth  of  the  matter. 
The  Confession  is  officially  described  as  that  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  not  of  its  ministry  and  eldership.  And 
in  our  country  distinctions  between  clergy  and  people  do 
not  count  for  much.  Every  man  is  expected  to  stand  up 
for  the  creed  of  his  church  as  he  does  for  the  platform  of 
his  party.  The  Roman  Catholic  workmen  in  our  shops 
and  factories  must  have  an  answer  ready  when  they  are 
challenged  as  to  the  dogma  of  papal  infallibility  or  the 
immaculate  conception ;  the  Baptist  must  have  his  reasons 
for  immersion  and  close  communion ;  and  so  along  the 
whole  line  of  denominational  peculiarities. 

The  debate  on  revision  brought  the  extreme  statements 
of  the  Westminster  standards  into  strong  light,  and  threw 
the  members  of  the  church  everywhere  upon  the  defen- 
siv^e.  Reprobation  and  infant  damnation  became  topics  of 
common  conversation.  Presbyterians  had  to  declare  where 
they  stood  on  these  points,  without  the  least  reference  to 
the  fact  that  they  never  had  subscribed  the  Confession. 
It  was  felt  that  the  whole  membership  of  the  church  had 
a  vital  interest  in  its  authoritative  statements  of  doctrine, 
and  that  a  normal  confession  must  be  one  which  is  both 
intelligible  and  credible  to  the  people  at  large. 

It  also  was  said  (4)  that  the  alleged  defects  of  the  Con- 
fession were  not  serious  matters,  as  no  Confession  of  Faith 
could  be  expected  to  state  the  whole  faith  of  the  church, 
but  only  to  establish  the  lines  of  definition  and  defense 


PRESBYTERIAN  LOSSES.  253 

which  are  essential  to  its  doctrinal  integrity.  It  was  an- 
swered that  this  was  true  enough,  and  that  the  divines  at 
Westminster  would  have  done  their  work  much  better  if 
they  had  borne  the  principle  in  mind.  But  the  things  to 
be  omitted  must  not  be  such  fundamental  truths  as  the  love 
of  God  to  mankind,  which  is  nowhere  stated  with  explicit- 
ness.  Neither  should  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  in  men's 
hearts,  apart  from  his  comforting  and  sanctifying  believers, 
have  been  left  to  inference.  In  truth,  since  the  days  of 
Jonathan  Edwards,  and  starting,  indeed,  from  his  later 
theological  development,  there  had  been  a  shifting  of  the 
theological  center  from  the  sovereignty  to  the  love  of  God. 
This  had  been  the  root  of  the  larger  activity  of  the  church 
in  the  mission  field  and  in  works  of  charity  at  home.  This 
had  supplied  a  new  theological  perspective  to  the  preach- 
ing even  of  Dr.  Shedd  and  Dr.  Hall.  But  the  Confession 
was  out  of  harmony  with  all  this. 

It  was  argued  also  (5)  that  in  spite  of  its  alleged  omis- 
sions and  excesses  the  Confession  had  served  the  church 
for  nearly  two  centuries  and  a  half  of  splendid  growth  and 
achievement.  This  argument  was  generally  allowed  to 
pass,  but  it  had  the  least  foundation  of  any.  American 
Presbyterianism,  in  all  its  eleven  branches,  did  not  contain 
one  third  of  the  descendants  of  the  Presbyterian  immigra- 
tion to  America.  This  fact  and  the  division  and  subdivis- 
ion of  the  church  were  directly  traceable  to  the  scholastic 
and  one-sidedly  intellectual  character,  and  the  resulting 
tendency  to  doctrinal  niceties  and  polemics,  which  the 
Westminster  standards  have  imparted  to  Presbyterianism. 

As  the  voting  proceeded  the  conservatives  at  first  were 
disposed  to  insist  that  nothing  less  than  a  tw^o-thirds  ma- 
jority would  warrant  the  Assembly  in  proceeding  further. 
But  this  claim  was  generally  abandoned,  as  the  overture 


2  54  ^'^^^  PRESBYTERIANS,  [Chap,  xviii. 

made  no  specific  ^proposal  for  revision,  and  its  adoption 
would  effect  none.  The  vote  finally  stood  134  Presby- 
teries for  revision  explicitly,  and  4  substantially  so,  a  two- 
thirds  majority  of  all  being  142. 

When  the  Assembly  of  1890  met,  a  prolongation  of  the 
struggle  was  expected.  The  conservatives,  however,  ac- 
cepted the  decision  and  proffered  their  assistance  in  effect- 
ing the  revision.  Princeton  took  the  lead  in  this,  much  to 
the  indignation  of  extreme  conservatives,  who  forgot  that 
a  sort  of  opportunism  is  one  of  its  fixed  traditions.  It  sug- 
gested Dr.  Warfield  as  its  representative ;  but  his  declara- 
tion that  the  Confession  unrevised  "  suited  him  down  to  the 
ground  "  had  created  a  prejudice  against  him  as  a  reviser. 
Dr.  Green  was  appointed  instead,  and  a  committee  was 
created  out  of  both  parties,  which  distinctly  did  not  repre- 
sent the  state  of  feeling  in  the  church  on  the  subject.  The 
result  was  a  great  disappointment,  as  its  report,  while  con- 
ceding much  that  had  been  asked,  did  not  make  that  on 
which  the  revision  movement  hinged.  The  offensive  state- 
ments as  to  pretention  were  touched  so  slightly  as  to  leave 
that  matter  much  where  it  had  stood  before. 

The  Assembly  of  1891  sent  down  the  report  to  the 
Presbyteries  for  further  suggestions,  which  were  forwarded 
to  the  committee.  The  conclusions  finally  reached  were 
laid  before  the  Assembly  of  1892  in  twenty-eight  over- 
tures, and  these  were  sent  to  the  Presbyteries  for  their 
final  action. 

These  overtures  certainly  contained  some  of  the  changes 
ardently  desired  by  the  majority  of  the  church.  The 
statement  as  to  the  unalterable  number  of  the  elect  was  to 
disappear;  the  operation  of  God's  grace  and  of  his  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  lives  and  hearts  of  the  unregenerate  was  enun- 
ciated ;  the  limitation  of  the  work  of  creation  to  six  days 
was  changed  so  as  to  leave  the  question  of  time  an  open 


HALF  A    LOAF,   OR  NONE?  255 

one ;  the  salvation  of  the  heathen  by  God's  grace,  without 
the  preached  Word,  was  admitted  as  possible ;  that  of  all 
infants  dying  in  infancy  was  clearly  stated ;  the  pope  was 
not  to  be  pilloried  as  Antichrist,  nor  marriage  with  Roman 
Catholics  explicitly  forbidden ;  and  the  power  of  ministers 
to  retain  and  remit  sins  was  pronounced  to  be  '*  ministerial 
and  declarative  "  only.  But  the  doctrine  of  reprobation 
or  pretention  was  not  eliminated,  as  had  been  asked  by 
over  a  hundred  Presbyteries.  On  this  point,  it  is  said, 
Princeton  was  most  determined  and  most  persuasive.  Six 
of  the  twenty-four  members  of  the  Committee  of  Revi- 
sion 1  recorded  their  dissent  from  the  result  in  the  case  of 
Chapter  III. 

It  now  fell  to  the  advocates  of  revision  to  decide  whether 
half  a  loaf  was  better  than  none,  or  the  contrary.  A  large 
number  of  them  must  have  concluded  that  it  was  better  to 
lay  the  whole  subject  on  the  shelf  for  the  time  than  adopt 
a  truncated  revision,  which  might  stand  in  the  way  of  one 
more  perfect.  At  the  same  time  there  was  a*  decided  feel- 
ing among  many  that  the  church  had  taken  the  wrong, 
course,  as  revision  would  necessarily  prove  more  irritating 
to  one  half  the  church  and  less  satisfactory  to  the  other 
than  would  the  preparation  of  a  new  creed,  less  scholastic 
and  more  practical  in  character.  The  report  of  the  com- 
mittee offered  nothing  but  sundry  patches  of  new  cloth  on 
an  old  garment,  and  the  whole  effect  was  incongruous  in 
the   extreme.      A   sixteenth-century   document    blistered 

1  The  committee  consisted  of  Dr.  William  E.  Roberts,  chairman  ;  Dr. 
William  E.  Moore,  secretary ;  Dr.  William  Henry  Green,  Dr.  Matthew  B. 
Riddle,  Dr.  Willis  J.  Beecher,  Dr.  Edward  D.  Morris,  Dr.  Herrick  John- 
son.  Dr.  William  Alexander,  Dr.  Ebenezer  Erskine,  Dr.  James  T.  Leftwich, 
Dr.  Samuel  J.  Niccolls,  Dr.  Edward  R.  Burkhalter,  Dr.  Robert  R.  Booth ; 
Elders  Hon.  William  Strong,  Hon.  Samuel  J.  R.  Macmillan,  Hon.  Alfred 
Hand,  Hon.  Emerson  E.  White,  Hon.  Henry  B.  Sayler ;  and  Messrs.  Win- 
throp  S.  Oilman,  Barker  Gummere,  William  Evarts,  George  Junkin,  and 
Charles  M.  Charnley. 


256  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

over  with  nineteenth-century  amendments  could  not  form 
a  homogeneous  whole. 

This  state  of  feeling  was  indicated  in  the  final  vote.  The 
vote  of  147  Presbyteries  was  needed  to  adopt  any  of  the 
overtures.  The  highest  number  received  by  any  was  1 14, 
and  this  number  was  given  for  four.  The  rest,  with  four 
exceptions,  ranged  from  105  to  113,  while  the  explicit  vote 
in  the  negative  ranged  from  61  to  68.  But  the  latter  were 
reinforced  by  fifteen  Presbyteries  (mostly  on  the  mission 
field)  which  made  no  report;  thirteen  others  (two  on  the 
mission  field)  which  reported  no  action  on  the  overtures ; 
and  seventeen  which  refused  to  act  on  them  as  doubting 
their  constitutionality.  Fifteen  out  of  these  three  groups 
had  voted  for  revision  in  1890. 

The  support  of  the  overtures  did  not  come  by  any  means 
from  those  Presbyteries  alone  which  had  supported  the 
original  proposal.  The  twenty-four  Presbyteries  of  the 
Cherokee  nation,  Chillicothe,  Dubuque,  Ebenezer,  Hunt- 
ingdon, Kingston,  La  Crosse,  North  Laos,  North  Texas, 
Palmyra,  Peoria,  Platte,  Portsmouth,  Redstone,  Rock  River, 
Sacramento,  St.  Louis,  San  Francisco,  Shenango,  Spring- 
field, Trinity,  Washington,  Wooster,  and  Zanesville,  all  had 
voted  with  the  minority  in  1890.  They  now  voted  for  all 
or  nearly  all  the  overtures — as  did  Pittsburg  for  sixteen  of 
them,  Philadelphia  for  nineteen,  and  New  Brunswick  for 
twenty-one — and  would  have  carried  them  if  the  revision- 
ists had  kept  their  ranks.  But  in  addition  to  the  fifteen 
abstentionists  already  referred  to,  the  thirty-one  Presby- 
teries of  Albany,  Chemung,  Chippewa,  East  Oregon,  Free- 
port,  Grand  Rapids,  Indianapolis,  Iowa  City,  Jersey  City, 
Larned,  Logansport,  Mahoning,  Mankato,  Maumee,  Mil- 
waukee, Montana,  New  York,  North  River,  Otsego,  Pe- 
toskey,  Puget  Sound,  Rochester,  St.  Clairsville,  St.  Law- 
rence, Solomon,  Southern  Oregon,  South  Florida,  Stockton, 


THE    VOTE    O.V  REVISION.  257 

Syracuse,  West  Jersey,  and  Whitewater,  all  of  which  had 
voted  for  revision  in  1890,  now  voted  against  the  overtures 
about  as  evenly  as  the  conservative  Presbyteries  above 
mentioned  voted  for  them.  This  in  a  few  cases  may  have 
been  the  result  of  a  shift  of  control  of  the  Presbytery  from 
one  party  to  another,  but  it  cannot  have  been  true  in  most 
cases.  These  Presbyteries  wanted  revision,  or  something 
like  it,  as  much  as  ever,  but  not  after  this  fashion. 

The  four  overtures  which  fell  below  the  average  of  sup- 
port were  the  first,  third,  fourth,  and  the  second  half  of  the 
fifteenth.  The  first  proposed  to  insert  into  the  list  of  the 
things  which  *'  move  us  to  a  high  and  reverend  estimate 
of  the  Scriptures  "  a  statement  of  the  external  evidences. 
This  belated  bit  of  apologetics  received  but  97  votes.  The 
third  was  the  restatement  of  the  doctrine  of  reprobation, 
which  represented  Princeton's  ultimatum.  It  was  rejected 
by  107  votes  against  it  to  67  in  its  favor.  The  fourth 
eliminated  the  "  six  days'  "  limit  out  of  the  statement  of 
creation,  and  it  received  100  votes  to  74  in  the  negative. 
The  second  half  of  the  fifteenth,  on  which  a  separate  vote 
was  asked,  was  offensive  to  the  conservatives.  Drs.  Green, 
Patton,  Alexander,  and  Leftwich,  and  Messrs.  Junkin  and 
Stratton  had  appended  an  expression  of  their  dissent  from 
it  to  their  signatures  to  the  report.  It  enlarged  the  state- 
ment of  the  Confession  as  to  the  regeneration  of  elect  per- 
sons in  the  absence  of  the  ordinary  means  from  "  all  other 
elect  persons,  who  are  incapable  of  being  outwardly  called 
by  the  ministry  of  the  Word,"  to  "  all  other  elect  persons, 
who  are  not  outwardly  called  by  the  Word."  It  also  was 
in  the  minority  by  92  negative  to  81  affirmative  votes. 
The  overture  just  preceding,  which  would  have  struck  out 
the  language  as  to  "  elect  infants,"  received  but  105  votes 
to  68. 

The  Assembly  of  1893  received  over  sixty  memorials 


258  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

asking  the  preparation  of  a  new  and  shorter  creed,  but 
voted  to  lay  the  matter  aside.  In  this  decision  there  was 
a  general  acquiescence.  The  church  was  weary  of  the  dis- 
cussion. It  was  felt  that  the  whole  subject  had  been  taken 
up  by  the  wrong  handle,  with  the  result  of  obtaining  the 
maximum  of  irritation  and  the  minimum  of  relief. 

Here  the  matter  has  rested,  but  cannot  continue  to  do 
so  for  many  years.  The  discussion  placed  the  church  per- 
manently in  such  a  relation  to  its  own  Confession  as  makes 
it  impossible  for  it  to  retain  the  place  it  had  held  before 
1889.  The  work  of  the  Westminster  divines  has  been 
challenged  as  inadequate  in  its  statement  of  the  gospel  of 
divine  grace,  and  as  presumptuous  in  its  handling  of  divine 
mysteries.  This  has  been  done  not  by  some  obscure  and 
isolated  group  of  theologians,  but  by  men  of  the  largest 
influence  in  every  part  of  the  church.  Its  statements  on 
matters  of  vital  importance  have  been  declared  unsatisfac- 
tory by  more  than  a  majority  of  the  Presbyteries,  and  the 
substitution  of  other  statements  has  been  approved.  In 
this  the  church  has  gone  much  too  far  to  stop,  but  the 
delay  will  not  be  wasted  if  some  attention  be  given  to  as- 
certaining a  better  mode  of  procedure  than  was  adopted 
in  1889. 

The  preparation  of  a  new  Confession  of  Faith  for  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  America,  with  the  cooperation  of 
any  of  the  sister-churches  which  can  be  induced  to  partici- 
pate in  it,  seems  the  most  feasible  method  of  solving  the 
problem.  The  right,  even  the  duty,  of  each  national  church 
to  express  its  own  faith  in  its  own  words  was  recognized 
among  the  earlier  Calvinists.  That  they  had  as  many  con- 
fessions as  churches  was  one  of  the  characteristics  which 
distinguished  them  from  the  Lutherans  with  their  Augs- 
burg Confession,  for  which  they  claimed  an  ecumenical 
character.      Holland   did   not   copy   France,   nor   did   the 


NATIONAL    CONFESSIONS.  259 

Huguenot  Church  of  France  repeat  the  Swiss.  The  church 
of  the  Pfalz  drafted  its  own  Heidelberg  Catechism  as  its 
confession.  The  Scottish  Kirk  in  Knox's  day  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  confessions  of  the  continental  churches, 
but  it  prepared  a  confession  of  its  own,  a  document  full  of 
the  spirit  and  the  flavor  of  Scotland.  No  church  thought 
of  playing  the  role  of  theological  parasite,  in  the  fashion 
of  the  hermit-crab,  as  Professor  Drummond  describes  it. 
It  was  felt  that  the  weight  and  force  of  the  collective  testi- 
mony of  these  churches  was  greatly  increased  through 
each  testifying,  **  in  its  own  tongue  "  and  its  own  terms, 
**  the  wonderful  works  of  God."  It  is  to  this  freedom  of 
individual  utterance  that  the  British  churches  are  now  re- 
turning, for  the  Scottish  Declaratory  Acts  cannot  but  lead 
to  the  step  already  taken  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
England.  It  will  be  in  accord  with  the  oldest  traditions 
of  the  Reformed  churches  if  their  American  representa- 
tives, laying  aside  the  helmet  of  brass  and  the  coat  of  mail 
devised  by  the  divines  of  Westminster  for  a  scholastic- 
polemic  age,  should  go  forth  to  the  world  with  an  expres- 
sion of  their  own  insight  into  Scriptural  truth,  their  own 
statement  of  those  great  doctrines  of  grace  which  exalt 
God  and  humble  man. 

It  is  true  that  we  are  told — and  Dr.  Briggs  seems  to 
agree  in  the  statement — that  the  modern  church  has  not 
the  ability  to  do  anything  half  so  good  in  that  line  as  the 
Westminster  divines  did.  That  statement  is  extremely 
doubtful.  They  were  not  men  of  the  first  order  of  their 
own  time.  The  great  names  which  most  adorn  the  Puri- 
tan age,  with  the  exception  of  Samuel  Rutherford,  are  all 
wanting  from  the  list  of  the  Assembly.  James  Ussher, 
Stephen  Charnock,  Thomas  Brookes,  John  Owen,  John 
Howe,  Richard  Baxter,  Robert  Leighton,  were  all  absent. 
William   Twiss,   Herbert    Palmer,  Stephen    Marshall, 'An- 


260  THE   rRESBYTERIAXS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

thony  Tuckney,  and  John  Lightfoot  were  the  best  theolo- 
gians among  them,  and  not  one  of  them  but  the  last  sur- 
vi\ed  his  age  in  any  production  of  his  pen.  Their  attempt 
to  supplement  their  work  as  an  Assembly  by  a  commen- 
tary on  the  Scriptures  proved  a  failure.  Even  their  col- 
lective repute  failed  to  float  their  sapless  "  Annotations  " 
into  favor. 

The  theologians  of  our  American  church  may  have  less 
scholastic  training,  and  less  faith  in  the  adequacy  of  logic 
to  meet  every  emergency,  than  had  the  body  which  met 
in  Westminster  Abbey.  They  may  make  but  little  of  the 
nice  distinctions  and  discriminations  which  seemed  so  pre- 
cious to  the  divines  who  debated  across  that  green-baize 
table  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber.  But  they  have  had  the 
advantage  of  two  centuries  of  deepening  knowledge  of 
God's  Word  and  deepening  experience  of  his  guidance  of 
his  church.  And  what  they  would  offer  for  the  service 
of  God  in  the  assertion  of  his  truth,  and  for  the  upbuilding 
of  his  kingdom,  would  be  their  own,  and  not  the  borrowed 
offering,  which  was  always  rejected  from  sacrifice. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE    BRIGGS    AND   SMITH    TRIALS. 

A  CIRCUMSTANCE  which  tended  to  strengthen  the  hands 
of  the  conservatives  in  the  final  vote  on  revision  was  the 
precipitation  of  a  new  controversy  upon  the  church,  and 
one  even  more  exciting  in  its  character.  The  Assembly 
of  1 89 1,  to  which  the  report  on  revision  was  made,  was  the 
first  which  had  the  case  of  Professor  Charles  A.  Briggs,  of 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  before  it.  This  case  raised 
the  question  of  the  church's  attitude  to  what  lay  behind 
and  above  the  Confession — to  the  Bible  itself. 

Two  questions,  frequently  confounded,  were  involved  in 
this  case  and  in  that  of  Professor  Henry  Preserved  Smith, 
of  Lane  Seminary,  which  came  after  it.  The  first  is  that 
of  the  inerrancy  of  the  Scriptures ;  the  second  that  of  the 
composite  character  of  the  first  six  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah.  They  are  entirely  in- 
dependent questions,  as  any  one  may  take  the  negative  side 
on  either  while  holding  the  positive  on  the  other. 

It  was  long  contended  by  Christian  scholars  that  the 
Bible  as  it  stands  in  the  original  text  is  altogether  free 
from  errors  and  contradictions.  Immense  ingenuity  was 
expended  in  showing  that  the  figures  and  dates  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  Hebrew  were  mathematically  exact,  and  that 
the  apparent  discrepancies  of  the  several  Gospels  presented 
no  real  contradictions.  Of  late  years,  however,  this  kind 
of  harmonizing  seems  to  have  been  abandoned  by  scholars 

261 


262  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

of  the  most  orthodox  type  as  regards  some  of  these  alleged 
discrepancies,  while  they  limit  the  concession  to  a  much 
smaller  number  of  instances  than  the  negative  critics  allege. 
It  is  admitted  that  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  texts  contain 
some  errors  of  statement,  and  the  problem  is  how  these  are 
to  be  accounted  for  without  giving  up  the  Bible  as  an  in- 
spired guide  of  human  life. 

The  two  ways  which  have  been  suggested  are  (i)  to 
ascribe  the  errors  and  inaccuracies  to  the  copyists'  lack  of 
care  in  transcription,  or  (2)  to  modify  the  conception  of 
divine  inspiration  so  as  to  leave  room  for  human  error  in 
the  inspired  man  with  regard  to  matters  which  do  not 
pertain  to  "  teaching,  reproof,  correction,  and  instruction 
in  righteousness."  To  minds  of  the  conservative  type  the 
former  solution  of  the  difficulty  very  naturally  commends 
itself,  as  apparently  the  safer,  and  as  involving  no  modifi- 
cation of  the  usual  conceptions  of  the  divine  dealings  with 
men.  It  is  not,  however,  one  which  finds  any  warrant  in 
the  Westminster  Confession,  which  declares  that  **  the  Old 
Testament  in  Hebrew  and  the  New  Testament  in  Greek 
being  immediately  inspired  by  God,  and  by  his  singular 
care  and  providence  kept  pure  in  all  ages,  are  therefore 
authentical ;  so  as,  in  all  controversies  of  religion,  the 
church  is  finally  to  appeal  to  them."  The  authors  of  this 
statement  certainly  did  not  regard  the  divine  efficiency  as 
less  enlisted  in  the  preservation  of  the  Scriptures  from  error 
during  their  transmission  to  us  than  in  their  first  origina- 
tion by  the  inbreathing  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  when 
they  appeal  in  the  same  chapter  to  **  the  consent  of  all  the 
parts  "  as  an  evidence  of  the  "  infallible  truth  and  divine 
authority  thereof,"  they  leave  no  room  to  suppose  that  they 
have  reference  only  to  original  copies,  while  the  present 
texts  have  fallen  from  this  '^consent  of  the  parts  "  into  in- 
consistencies, or  from  this  "  infallible  truth  "  into  errancy 


El!KANCy  AXD   IXERRAXCV  263 

through  lapse  of  that  "  singular  care  and  providence." 
Such  a  supposition  they  distinctly  reject — more  distinctly, 
indeed,  than  a  theory  of  inspiration  which  leaves  room  for 
the  presence  of  mistaken  judgments  in  the  inspired  man 
as  regards  other  and  lesser  matters  than  "  the  goodness, 
wisdom,  and  power  of  God,"  "the  comfort  of  the  church 
against  the  corruption  of  the  flesh  and  the  malice  of  Satan 
and  the  world,"  "  the  full  discovery  of  the  way  of  man's 
salvation,"  "  the  whole  counsel  of  God  concerning  all 
things  necessary  for  his  own  glory,  man's  salvation,  faith, 
and  life,"  and  authoritative  guidance  **  in  all  controversies 
of  religion,"  which  things  the  Confession  defines,  as  the 
content  of  the  Bible. 

Yet  this  theory  of  the  inerrancy  of  the  original  texts, 
along  with  the  admitted  errancy  of  the  texts  we  have,  not 
only  has  obtained  recognition  as  a  permissible  solution,  in 
the  face  of  the  Confession's  teaching  to  the  contrary,  but 
has  been  exalted  to  serve  as  a  new  test  of  orthodoxy,  to 
the  condemnation  of  those  who  prefer  the  other  solution, 
which  finds  nothing  like  an  explicit  condemnation  in  the 
Confession.  In  this  way  the  divine  providence,  which  our 
Lord  declares  to  extend  to  the  numbering  of  the  hairs  of 
our  head,  is  confessed  inadequate  to  preserving  the  Bible 
in  that  state  of  perfection  in  which  it  was  first  given  to  the 
church,  and  which,  we  are  told,  we  must  believe  it  once 
possessed  if  we  are  to  believe  that  its  human  authors  were 
really  inspired  by  God. 

The  other  question  as  to  the  origin  of  certain  parts  of" 
the  Bible  is  of  lesser  importance.  Inspiration  may  use 
editors  as  well  as  authors,  and  did  so  in  the  case  of  the 
third  evangelist,  who  knew  nothing  at  first-hand  of  the 
story  he  tells.  It  is,  indeed,  another  affair  when  the  books 
of  the  Mosaic  law  are  represented  as  a  series  of  inventions 
of  late  date,  with  no  root  in  the  nation's  legal  traditions, 


264  ^^^  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

SO  that  **  The  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  ..."  be- 
comes a  mere  mode  of  speech  with  no  historic  warrant. 
No  such  significance,  however,  can  be  attached  to  the 
question  of  the  double  authorship  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah, 
except  that  the  notion  of  prophecy  as  prediction  out  of 
historic  relation  to  the  prophet's  environment  rests  largely 
on  the  assumption  that  one  Isaiah  wrote  the  whole  book. 

In  this  case,  also,  the  contact  with  the  churches  of  Great 
Britain,  and  especially  with  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland, 
had  much  to  do  with  the  origination  of  the  controversy. 
In  1 88 1  Professor  W.  Robertson  Smith  had  been  removed 
from  his  professorship  of  Hebrew  in  the  Free  Church  Col- 
lege, Aberdeen,  by  the  Free  Church  Assembly,  his  offense 
being  the  views  he  presented  of  the  origin  of  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  in  articles  contributed  to  the  Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica,  and  in  his  book,  '*  The  Old  Testa- 
ment in  the  Jewish  Church  "  (Edinburgh  and  New  York, 
1 881).  The  case  attracted  general  attention  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  raised  the  question  whether  the  church 
was  likely  to  confirm  the  faith  of  her  own  members,  or  to 
exert  the  right  influence  upon  the  world,  if  she  decided  to 
expel  her  Thomases  from  the  apostolate,  as  her  Master 
did  not. 

The  case  was  complicated  by  the  peculiarly  unconcilia- 
tory  temper  of  Professor  Smith,  who  combined  a  great  deal 
of  the  fortitcr  in  re  with  very  little  of  the  siiavitcr  in  nwdo. 
It  was  to  be  regretted  that  these  difficult  and  delicate  ques- 
tions should  be  first  pressed  on  the  attention  of  the  church 
by  one  who,  whatever  his  learning,  had  so  little  reverence 
for  opinions  long  cherished  by  his  countrymen,  and  identi- 
fied by  them,  rightly  or  wrongly,  with  their  grasp  upon 
the  Word  of  God.  Much  the  same  embarrassment  at- 
tended the  appearance  of  the  same  problems  in  the  Amer- 
ican church.      Professor  Charles  Augustus  Briggs  shares 


DR.  BRIGGS'S  INAUGURAL.  265 

Professor  Robertson  Smith's  temper  as  well  as  his  critical 
opinions,  and  goes  beyond  the  Scotchman  in  his  enjoyment 
of  a  spirited  controversy.  If  we  may  judge  from  the  way 
in  which  he  is  said  to  have  received  the  remonstrances  of 
those  friends  to  whom  he  showed  his  Inaugural  before  its 
deHvery,  he  prefers  to  say  the  thing  which  will  shock  his 
hearers,  rather  than  to  give  it  a  shape  less  offensive.  In 
none  of  his  works  is  there  shown  that  faculty  of  reverence 
which  is  as  needful  for  the  critic  as  for  the  pastor.  He 
never  gave  the  church  the  impression  that,  in  his  view,  the 
great  work  of  a  professor  in  training  the  ministry  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  is  to  show  them  what  are  the 
elements  of  power  which  have  given  those  books  their  hold 
on  the  faith,  the  affections,  and  the  conscience  of  mankind. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  beyond  question  that  he  knew  how 
to  wdn  the  enthusiastic  affection  of  his  pupils,  and  that  in 
some  cases  he  had  been  the  means  of  rescuing  young  men 
from  a  profound  skepticism  as  regards  the  Bible  to  a  prac- 
tical faith  in  its  authority. 

But  it  was  the  former  side  of  his  work  which  was  most 
in  evidence  before  the  church  when  in  1 891  he  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  chair  of  Hebrew  and  cognate  languages  in 
Union  Seminary  to  the  newly  founded  chair  of  biblical 
theology,  and  dehvered  (January  20th)  his  inaugural  ad- 
dress. As  early  as  1870  he  had  repudiated  publicly  the 
traditional  theory  of  inspiration.  In  his  articles  in  the 
**  Reformed  and  Presbyterian  Review  "  and  in  his  "  Bibli- 
cal Study"  (1883)  and  ''Messianic  Prophecy"  (1886)  he 
had  shown  himself  affected  by  the  school  of  critics  to  which 
Professor  Robertson  Smith  belongs,  but  always  with  reser- 
vations which  kept  him  within  the  bounds  of  toleration. 
In  the  Inaugural  he  showed  that  he  had  reached  a  point 
w^hich,  conservatives  thought,  made  it  impossible  to  pass  it 
over  in  silence.      His  case  first  came  before  the  General 


266  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

Assembly  of  1891,  under  the  agreement  of  Union  and 
other  seminaries  to  submit  the  election  of  professors  to  the 
Assembly  for  confirmation.  His  friends  contended  that 
his  transfer  from  one  chair  to  another  did  not  require  the 
Assembly's  approval ;  but  the  Assembly  overruled  this, 
and  by  449  to  60  votes  formally  refused  to  confirm  his 
appointment. 

His  Presbytery  therefore  appointed  a  committee  to  con- 
sider the  propriety  of  trying  him  upon  charges  of  unsound 
doctrine.  This  committee  reported  charges,  which  the 
Presbytery  ordered  him  to  answer.  On  November  4, 
1 89 1,  the  Presbytery  heard  his  answer,  and  by  94  votes 
to  39  decided  to  dismiss  the  case  **  in  view  of  the  declara- 
tions made  by  Dr.  Briggs  touching  his  loyalty  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  the  Westminster  standards,  and  of  his  dis- 
claimers of  interpretations  put  on  some  of  his  words."  The 
prosecuting  committee  then  took  the  unusual  step  of  ap- 
pealing directly  to  the  General  Assembly,  while  thirty-four 
members  of  the  Presbytery  complained  in  the  ordinary 
way  to  the  Synod  of  New  York.  The  Assembly  of  1892, 
meeting  at  Portland,  Ore.,  entertained  the  Protest  and  or- 
dered the  Presbytery  to  try  the  case  on  its  merits.  The 
Presbytery,  meeting  in  November,  1892,  cited  Professor 
Briggs  to  appear  before  it  a  month  later,  and  to  answer  the 
list  of  charges,  with  specifications,  which  the  Committee  of 
Prosecution  had  laid  before  it.  When  the  trial  actually 
occurred,  it  was  a  matter  of  more  than  national  interest. 
The  prosecution  was  conducted  with  distinguished  ability 
and  legal  acumen,  though  not  with  great  exegetical  learn- 
ing, by  Drs.  G.  W.  F.  Birch  and  Joseph  J.  Lampe,  and 
Elder  John  J.  McCook.  The  charges  were  that  he  taught 
(i)  that  men  may  be  enlightened  unto  salvation  by  reason 
or  through  the  church,  apart  from  the  Bible  ;  (2)  that  the 
inspiration  of  the  Bible  was  not  such  as  to  exclude  errors 


A    QUESTIONABLE   APPEAL.  267 

as  to  matters  of  fact  even  from  the  original  documents; 

(3)  that  he  denied  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  Pentateuch 
and  of  the  unity  of  authorship  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  ;  and 

(4)  asserted  the  continuance  of  sanctification  after  death. 
The  second  point  was  really  the  essential  one,  and  cannot 
be  said  to  have  been  handled  fully  and  frankly  by  the 
prosecution.  Appeal  was  made  to  a  great  number  uf 
authorities,  who  really  held  to  the  inerrancy  of  the  He- 
brew and  Greek  texts  as  we  have  them,  and  who  would 
have  repudiated  Dr.  Green's  concessions  as  emphatically  as 
those  of  Dr.  Briggs.  In  his  reply  Professor  Briggs  showed 
his  superiority  in  a  professional  familiarity  with  the  subjects 
under  discussion,  and  was  unhappy  only  in  the  tone  which 
characterized  every  reference  to  tlie  prosecution  and  the 
Assembly.  The  Presbytery,  by  a  somewhat  diminished 
majority,  acquitted  Dr.  Briggs  on  all  the  charges. 

The  Committee  of  Prosecution  now  appealed  a  second 
.time  to  the  General  Assembly,  both  on  the  ground  of  ex- 
ceptions taken  to  the  Presbytery's  conduct  of  the  trial,  and 
of  the  wrongfulness  of  the  verdict  reached.  To  this  course 
it  was  objected  that  a  committee  of  Presbytery  could  not 
appeal  against  the  Presbytery,  and  that  no  appeal  could 
be  taken  from  a  verdict  of  acquittal  by  a  public  prosecutor. 
It  was  pointed  out  that  no  such  appeal  had  ever  been  en- 
tertained in  the  American  church,  that  it  was  forbidden  to 
the  national  courts  by  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
that  it  .was  a  violation  of  the  common  law  inherited  from 
England,  and  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  universal  prin- 
ciples of  equity.  That  such  appeals  had  been  taken 
by  private  prosecutors  in  the  cases  of  Mr.  Barnes  and 
Dr.  Beecher  established  no  precedent  for  this  case,  as  the 
public  prosecutor  incurs  none  of  the  personal  risks  which 
Presbyterian  law  attaches  to  the  failure  of  the  private 
prosecutor  to  make  good  his  charges.     The  revised  Book 


268  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

of  Discipline,  however,  allowed  of  an  appeal  being  taken 
by  "  either  of  the  original  parties,"  where  the  old  book 
had  limited  this  to  "  a  party  aggrieved  "  by  the  decision. 
On  this  point  mainly  the  conservatives  rested  their  case. 

In  the  selection  of  members  of  the  Assembly  of  1893, 
as  in  the  case  of  its  predecessor,  pains  were  taken  to  send 
up  delegations  whose  sympathies  coincided  with  those  of 
the  majority  in  each  Presbytery.  This  worked  badly  for 
Professor  Briggs's  friends,  who  were  the  majority  in  very 
few  Presbyteries,  and  secured  an  Assembly  much  more 
conservati\'e  than  the  church  at  large,  and  one  whose 
scholarship  was  not  as  ample  as  would  have  been  obtained 
with  less  party  management.  It  is  not  always  those  who 
have  given  most  attention  to  a  complex  question  who  are 
the  most  positive  about  it.  Next  to  the  report  on  the  vote 
of  the  Presbyteries  on  the  twenty-eight  overtures  for  the 
revision  of  the  Confession,  the  Briggs  case  was  the  most 
important  matter  of  business,  and  in  point  o^  popular 
interest  it  almost  wholly  eclipsed  that.  The  Assembly, 
by  a  vote  of  410  to  145,  decided  to  entertain  the  appeal, 
Dr.  NichoUs,  of  St.  Louis,  and  four  other  members  of  the 
Judicial  Committee  objecting  to  this  course.  The  trial  of 
the  appeal  then  proceeded,  Messrs.  Lampe  and  McCook 
stating  the  case  for  the  prosecution,  and  Dr.  Briggs  reply- 
ing. After  hearing  other  members  of  the  Presbytery  and 
members  of  the  Assembly,  the  vote  was  reached,  and  295 
voted  to  sustain  the  appeal  as  a  whole  and  84  to  sustain 
in  part,  while  1 16  voted  not  to  sustain. 

Before  the  sentence  was  pronounced  a  subcommittee  of 
the  special  committee  appointed  to  draft  it  waited  on  Dr. 
Briggs  in  the  hope  that  he  would  make  some  retraction, 
which  might  render  a  stay  of  proceedings  short  of  suspen- 
sion possible.  Pie  replied  first  verbally,  and  then  in  writ- 
ing, that  he  had  nothing  to  retract,  as  he  *'  adhered  to  all 


A    QUESriOXABLE   SENTEXCE.  269 

the  positions  taken  before  the  General  Assembly."  The 
Assembly  therefore  went  on  to  declare  the  decision  of 
the  Presbytery  of  New  York  erroneous  and  its  proceeding 
faulty,  and  to  pronounce  Professor  Briggs  guilty  of  all  the 
charges  on  which  he  had  been  tried — of  having  "  uttered, 
taught,  and  propagated  views,  doctrines,  and  teachings 
contrary  to  the  essential  doctrines  of  Holy  Scripture  and 
the  standards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  in  violation 
of  [his]  ordination  vow,  which  said  erroneous  teachings, 
views,  and  doctrines  strike  at  the  vitals  of  religion,  and 
have  been  industriously  spread."  On  this  ground  it  sus- 
pended him  "  from  the  office  of  a  minister  in  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  until  such  time  as  he  shall  give  satisfactory 
evidence  of  repentance  to  the  General  Assembly  for  the 
violation  by  him  of  said  ordination  vow." 

This  decision  lacks  the  calm  of  the  judicial  temper.  It 
is  pervaded  by  a  personal  animus,  which  finds  an  outlet  in 
many  of  its  phrases,  and  especially  in  the  conversion  of  the 
charge  of  unsound  teaching  into  one  of  personal  immoral- 
ity, and  in  making  the  restoration  of  the  offender  depend- 
ent not  upon  the  retraction  of  his  alleged  errors,  but 
upon  his  "  repentance  "  for  his  sin.  It  thus  affixes  a  stigma 
to  the  accused,  which  was  not  warranted  by  any  evidence 
before  the  Assembly,  nor  embodied  in  any  of  the  charges 
on  which  he  was  tried.  It  bases  this  sin  of  unfaithfulness 
on  each  and  all  of  the  charges,  thus  declaring  that  who- 
ever holds  that  there  were  two  Isaiahs  and  not  one,  or 
that  Moses  did  not  write  the  books  of  the  Pentateuch — a 
point  on  which  the  Confession  of  Faith  has  nothing  to  say 
— is  guilty  of  a  breach  of  his  ordination  vow,  if  he  be  a 
minister  of  the  church. 

In  truth,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  "  ordination  vow  " 
with  regard  to  doctrine.  The  candidate  for  the  ministry 
is  admitted  on  the  declaration  of  his  present  assent  to  the 


2  70  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

teachings  of  the  Confession  of  Faith.  He  gives  no  prom- 
ise that  he  will  continue  that  assent.  His  utmost  implied 
obligation  is  to  state  fully  and  frankly  his  divergences  from 
the  Confession  and  leave  the  church  to  judge  whether  they 
are  such  as  require  that  his  place  in  the  ministry  shall  be 
abandoned.  Even  on  the  supposition  that  Dr.  Briggs  was 
conscious  of  an  essential  divergence  of  his  views  from  those 
of  the  Confession — a  supposition  he  denies,  and  no  man 
has  the  right  to  say  the  denial  is  dishonest — he  had  done 
all  that  honesty  and  manliness  required  of  him. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  in  neither  of  the  two  protests, 
signed  respectively  by  97  and  62  members  of  the  Assem- 
bly, was  this  point  insisted  upon.  The  second,  indeed, 
complained  of  the  injustice  which  the  Assembly  had 
done  to  a  "  Christian  scholar  of  acknowledged  high  char- 
acter." The  first  confined  itself  to  a  protest  against  the 
new  theory  of  an  inerrant  and  infallible  Bible  which  no- 
body had  seen,  but  in  which  all  must  believe  from  this 
time  forward.  As  the  sentence  runs  the  General  Assem- 
bly pronounced  every  signer  of  this  protest  guilty  of  vio- 
lating his  ordination  vow.  Among  them  were  Drs.  Her- 
rick  Johnson,  Samuel  J.  Niccolls,  Charles  L.  Thompson, 
George  Alexander,  Charles  A.  Dickey,  Francis  Brown, 
Henry  M.  Storrs,  Edward  P.  Sprague,  William  R.  Taylor, 
J.  Garland  Hamner,  Henry  H.  Stebbins,  and  Revs.  Thomas 
C.  Hall,  Robert  A.  Carnahan,  and  C.  P.  H.  Nason. 

The  case  of  Professor  Henry  Preserved  Smith,  of  Lane 
Seminary,  came  before  the  Assembly  in  regular  order 
through  his  appeal  from  the  adverse  decision  of  the  Synod 
of  Ohio.  In  March,  1891,  he  had  read  a  paper  on  Inspi- 
ration before  the  Presbyterian  Ministerial  Association  of 
Cincinnati,  and  this  was  printed  along  with  a  similar  paper 
by  Professor  Llewellyn  J.  Evans,  also  of  Lane  Seminary. 
It  was  eighteen  months  later  that  the  Presbytery  of  Cin- 


DR.   SMITH'S  APPEAL.  27  I 

ciiinati  referred  the  matter  to  a  committee,  which  drafted 
three  charges,  of  two  of  which  the  Presbytery  found  Dr. 
Smith  guilty,  and  suspended  him  from  the  ministry  until 
he  should  renounce  the  errors  alleged.  On  this  he  ap- 
pealed to  the  Synod  of  Ohio,  complaining  b(3th  of  the 
procedure  and  the  verdict  of  the  Presbytery.  The  Synod 
entertained  the  appeal,  but,  after  hearing  the  case,  voted 
not  to  sustain  any  of  its  twelve  specifications.  The  high- 
est vote  on  any  was  5  i  to  78.  On  all  twelve  Dr.  Smith 
now  appealed  to  the  General  Assembly. 

The  case  was  not  complicated  with  any  of  the  personal 
considerations  or  side  issues  which  complicated  that  of 
Professor  Briggs.  The  appellant's  manner  of  stating  his 
opinions  and  of  conducting  his  case  was  open  to  no  excep- 
tion. He  commanded  the  esteem  even  of  those  who  had 
united  in  condemning  him.  The  issue  simply  was  whether 
the  original  manuscripts,  as  they  came  from  the  hands  of 
the  inspired  writers,  did  or  did  not  possess  an  inerrancy 
which  they  have  lost  in  the  process  of  transmission.  But 
this  issue  had  been  prejudged  in  the  sentence  on  Professor 
Briggs,  and  Dr.  Smith's  appeal  was  rejected  by  a  vote  of 
396  not  to  sustain,  against  55  to  sustain  and  47  to  sustain  in 
part,  the  appeal.  In  this  case  the  Assembly  remembered 
its  duty  to  confer  with  the  accused,  but  its  Committee  of 
Conference  found  him  unprepared  to  make  any  statement 
which  would  modify  the  result.  As  sentence  had  been 
pronounced  already,  in  terms  which  corresponded  to  the 
charges,  by  the  Presbytery  of  Cincinnati,  there  was  no 
room  for  the  blunder  of  converting  a  suspension  for  alleged 
heresy  into  one  for  immoral  conduct. 

With  these  decisions  the  matter  has  rested  for  the  pres- 
ent. The  majority,  very  naturally,  hold  them  to  be  final 
and  to  constitute  an  interpretation  of  the  Confession  which 
is  binding  upon  all.     The  minority  reply  that  this  is  to 


272  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

fall  into  the  second  of  the  two  heresies  charged  upon  Dr. 
Briggs,  and  to  treat  the  church  as  an  independent  source 
of  divine  illumination.  Not  content  with  the  protests 
tabled  in  the  Assembly  of  1893,  they  met  in  convention 
that  year  at  Cleveland  to  reiterate  their  refusal  to  accept 
a  new  dogma  at  the  hands  of  the  General  Assembly.  In 
taking  this  course  of  dissent  and  protest  against  even  judi- 
cial decisions,  they  have  on  their  side  the  authority  of  Dr. 
Charles  Hodge,  who  wrote,  in  1866,  *' The  right  of  pro- 
test, as  it  has  always  been  exercised,  includes  the  right  of 
dissenting  from  the  deliverances  and  judgments  of  church 
courts,  on  the  ground  of  their  being  unwise,  unjust,  un- 
scriptural.  .  .  .  The  Assembly  [of  1866]  recognizes  the 
principle  that  adhesion  to  its  deliverances  cannot  be  made 
a  condition  of  Christian  or  ministerial  communion." 

But  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  manner  of  the  de- 
cision, it  was  not  possible  that  any  other  could  be  reached 
under  the  circumstances.  The  traditional  respect  for  the 
Bible  as  a  perfect  book,  the  general  acceptance  of  the 
most  absolute  and  mechanical  theories  of  its  inspiration, 
have  been  common  features  of  our  American  churches  of 
every  name.  These  have  been  so  long  associated  with  the 
reverence  for  the  Bible's  spiritual  greatness,  and  recogni- 
tion of  its  actual  worth  as  a  guide  for  life  and  a  disclosure 
of  God,  that  the  scholar  who  first  broached  a  different 
view  in  any  quarter  was  certain  to  be  regarded  as  "  strik- 
ing at  the  vitals  of  religion."  Especially  must  this  be 
expected  of  the  most  conservative  and  most  theological  of 
the  American  churches.  Men  felt  as  if  Professor  Briggs 
were  cutting  the  very  ground  from  beneath  their  feet. 
They  were  in  no  mood  to  judge  calmly  as  to  which  theory 
of  inspiration  best  fitted  the  facts.  They  were  the  less  so 
in  this  case,  because  it  was  presented  to  them  in  associa- 
tion with  doubtful  opinions  as  to  the  origin  and  composi- 


COXSERVATIVE    COXCESSIOXS.  2'i  I 

tion  of  some  of  the  books  of  Scripture,  and  other  matters 
of  the  higher  criticism,  and  because  the  champion  of  the 
new  views  was  a  man  whose  statements  were  often  so  un- 
guarded as  to  convey  an  entirely  false  notion  of  his  mean- 
ing. At  times  he  seemed  anxious  to  intensify  tlie  shock 
which  must  attend  his  enunciation  of  his  views  even  in 
their  mildest  expression. 

The  judgment  excited  a  general  dissent,  but  a  still  more 
general  assent,  in  the  other  churches.  In  all  quarters  the 
progressives  regretted  or  ridiculed,  and  the  conservatives 
rejoiced.  As  America  is  the  most  conservative  of  Prot- 
estant countries,  the  satisfaction  predominated.  It  was 
said  that  one  of  the  most  learned  of  American  churches 
had  given  her  decision  on  the  side  of  orthodoxy,  and  that 
with  an  emphasis  which  must  help  to  stem  the  tide  of 
loose  opinion  about  the  Bible.  It  was  not  noticed  that  the 
form  of  the  decision  did  not  place  the  church  on  that  West- 
minster platform  on  which  all  the  churches  stood  as  late  as 
thirty  years  ago.  It  admitted,  by  unmistakable  implication, 
the  presence  of  errors  in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  texts.  It 
admitted  the  errancy  of  the  Bible  as  we  have  it.  It  only 
pronounced  against  one  way  of  accounting  for  these,  and 
gave  its  sanction  to  the  other.  How  the  theory  it  sanc- 
tioned may  be  used  in  the  interest  of  negative  criticism 
remains  to  be  seen. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

THE    SEMINARY    QUESTION,  AND    OTHER    MATTERS. 

As  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  refused  to  accept 
the  decision  of  the  Assembly  of  1891  with  regard  to  Pro- 
fessor Briggs's  professorship,  there  was  at  once  a  straining 
of  the  relations  created  by  the  voluntary  compact  of  1870 
between  the  Assembly  and  the  theological  seminaries  in  a 
shape  suggested  by  Union  Seminary  itself.  After  some 
hesitation  the  directors  of  the  seminary  applied  to  the 
Assembly  for  an  abandonment  of  the  compact  by  mutual 
agreement,  on  the  ground  that  the  directors  of  the  semi- 
nary had  exceeded  their  powers  in  entering  into  it.  To 
this  the  Assembly  refused  to  assent,  but  it  proposed  to 
refer  the  matter  to  arbitration,  and  appointed  its  own  rep- 
resentatives on  the  proposed  board  of  arbitration.  When 
these  met  in  November,  in  New  York,  and  opened  a  cor- 
respondence with  the  directors  of  the  seminar}^,  they  were 
told  that  the  board,  by  a  vote  of  19  to  i,  had  decided  to 
terminate  the  compact  with  the  Assembly  ;  so  there  was 
no  use  for  the  service  of  arbitrators.  The  Assembly  of 
1893  placed  on  record  its  protest  against  this  action,  and 
instructed  its  Committee  on  Theological  Seminaries  to  re- 
ceive no  reports  from  Union  Seminary  while  its  directors 
maintained  this  attitude,  disclaimed  responsibility  for  its 
teachings,  and  directed  the  Board  of  Education  to  give 
aid  only  to  students  in  the  seminaries  approved  by  the 
Assembly. 

274 


STATUS   OF   THE   SEMIXAKJJ'S.  2  75 

The  same  Assembly  received  the  first  report  from  a 
special  committee  which  had  been  directed  by  the  Assem- 
bly of  1892  to  consider  the  relations  of  the  seminaries  to 
the  Assembly,  and  to  report  what  changes  were  necessary 
to  secure  the  Assembly's  authority  over  them.  It  re- 
hearsed a  part  of  the  facts  connected  with  the  establish- 
ment of  Princeton  Seminary,  and  declared  that  since  the 
creation  of  a  separate  board  of  trustees  for  that  seminary 
in  1822  the  church  had  abandoned  its  earlier  and  proper 
policy  in  the  establishment  and  control  of  these  institu- 
tions. It  found  the  fourteen  seminaries  of  the  church, 
with  880  students  taught  by  93  teachers,  in  possession  of 
over  $8,000,000  in  property  (Union,  $2,100,000;  Prince- 
ton, $1,500,000;  McCormick,  $1,400,000;  Auburn,  $800,- 
000;  Alleghany,  $750,000;  Lane,  $560,000;  San  Fran--, 
Cisco,  $500,000;  Danville,  $260,000;  Omaha,  $25,000;' 
Newark,  $67,000;  Dubuque,  $50,000),  which  the  com- 
mittee assumed  to  have  been  given  by  members  of  the 
church  to  secure  such  teaching  as  the  General  Assembly 
approved,  but  which  the  donors  had  seen  fit  to  vest  in  self- 
perpetuating  bodies  or  in  bodies  controlled  by  Synods  or 
Presbyteries  only.  It  was  not  until  1894,  however,  that 
the  committee  felt  free  to  report  a  plan  to  establish  the 
control  of  the  General  Assembly.  It  was  to  request  the 
seminaries  to  so  amend  their  charters  as  to  secure  that 
their  funds  shall  be  held  in  trust  for  the  church  at  large, 
for  the  purpose  of  theological  education  according  to  its 
standards  ;  and  also  to  secure  to  the  Assembly  a  veto  upon 
the  election  of  directors  and  trustees,  and  upon  the  elec- 
tion, appointment,  and  transfer  of  all  professors  and  teach- 
ers ;  and  to  vest  in  the  Assembly  the  power  to  proceed 
legally  against  seminaries  which  violate  any  of  these  pro- 
visions. After  a  discussion  which  occupied  parts  of  three 
mornings,  the  report  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  441  to  117, 


2^6  THE   FRESBYTEKIANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

the  seminary  professors  in  the  Assembly  voting  with  the 
majority. 

The  Assembly  had  not  long  adjourned  when  it  began 
to  be  seen  that  the  action  taken  was  hasty  and  ill  consid- 
ered. The  especial  advocates  of  a  reunion  with  the  South- 
ern Assembly  discovered  that  the  action  was  distasteful  in 
that  quarter,  and  that  its  success  would  furnish  one  more 
of  the  obstacles  to  that  policy.  The  Southern  church 
deprecates  centralization,  and  always  has  kept  seminaries 
under  synodical  control.  It  also  became  evident  that  the 
obstacles  to  the  clianges  of  charter  the  Assembly  asked 
were  as  good  as  insurmountable.  Some  of  the  States 
could  give  no  legal  recognition  to  a  body  constituted,  as 
is  the  General  Assembly,  from  citizens  of  all  the  States  of 
the  Union,  and  changed  in  its  composition  with  every 
year.  Nor  are  State  legislatures  so  fond  of  ecclesiastical 
centralization  as  to  place  property  held  within  their  limits 
under  control  uf  a  body  meeting  outside  them,  and  thus 
to  be  invested  with  the  control  of  millions  of  property. 
Probably  the  Alleghany  Seminary  would  have  had  the 
least  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  modification  of  its  charter, 
but  for  a  reason  which  would  have  made  the  change  emi- 
nently undesirable.  Any  chartered  institution  which  ac- 
cepts fresh  legislation  from  the  legislature,  since  the  adop- 
tion of  the  present  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  is  brought 
thereby  under  the  supervision  and  control  of  the  State  to 
an  extent  which  deprives  it  of  the  autonomy  it  previously 
possessed.  It  is  probable  that  this  is  not  the  only  State 
in  which  such  consequences  would  have  resulted. 

It  also  was  found  that  the  existing  boards  of  trustees  or 
directors  could  not  be  brought  to  see  the  matter  from  the 
Assembly's  point  of  view.  The  experiences  of  1830-36, 
and  the  terror  of  action  on  the  part  of  the  Assemblies  then 
felt  by  the  friends  of  Princeton  Seminary,  were  recalled,  and 


PLAN  OF  FEDERATION.  277 

went  to  prove  that  the  General  Assembly  was  not  always 
and  necessarily  the  best  safeguard  of  a  conservative  ortho- 
doxy. Certainly  Alleghany,  under  the  exclusive  control 
of  the  Synod  of  Pittsburg,  at  that  time  felt  much  more 
secure  in  its  position. 

At  this  writing  the  majority  of  the  seminaries  have  had 
the  Assembly's  proposal  under  consideration,  and  every 
one  of  these  has  refused  to  accede  to  it. 

The  proposal  would  not  have  secured  the  object  aimed 
at.  What  the  Assembly  needs  for  the  purpose  in  view  is 
the  power  of  summary  removal,  not  of  veto  upon  appoint- 
ments. It  was  this  that  enabled  the  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land to  get  rid  of  Professor  Robertson  Smith,  to  whose 
election  it  made  not  the  smallest  objection.  But  the  lack 
of  this,  as  also  of  the  powers  it  asked,  is  not  distressing 
the  church  to  anything  like  the  degree  that  the  majority  of 
1 894  seemed  to  suppose.  While  the  Assembly  is  in  session, 
its  members,  collectively  and  individually,  are  tempted  to 
think  it  the  great  povv^er  which  moves  the  church,  when  in 
truth  it  is  but  the  balance-wheel  of  the  machine. 

Another  subject  which  came  before  the  Assembly  of 
1894  was  the  plan  for  a  federal  council  of  the  Reformed 
churches  of  America.  This  might  be  described  as  an  at- 
tempt to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  within  national  limits, 
than  the  International  Alliance  of  the  Reformed  Churches 
offered,  and  to  take  away  the  reproach  of  antagonism  be- 
tween bodies  whose  differences  are  far  too  trifling  to  justify 
rivalry.  In  another  sense  it  is  a  reflex  of  the  unifying 
action  taken  in  the  mission  fields  of  Japan  and  Brazil  and 
contemplated  in  other  missionary  lands. 

The  object  of  the  plan  is  to  Include  all  the  Reformed 
churches  of  America  which  hold  the  Presbyterian  polit}-. 
The  churches  which  acted  by  their  commissioners  in  draft- 
ing the  plan  are  the  Presbyterian,  the  United  Presbyterian, 


278  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

the  Reformed  Presbyterian  (O.  S.  and  N.  S.),  the  Cumber- 
land Presbyterian,  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbyterian, 
South,  and  the  two  Reformed  churches  formerly  known 
as  the  Dutch  and  the  German.  This  includes  all  but  the 
Southern  Presbyterian  Church  and  the  fragments  left  out 
in  the  formation  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church. 

The  object  of  the  plan  is  too  good  to  admit  of  question. 
Whether  the  specific  plan  is  the  best  for  the  object  is 
doubted  by  some.  As  the  proposed  federal  council  is  to 
consist  of  four  ministers  and  four  elders  from  each  of  the 
churches,  the  smaller  bodies  would  have  an  undue  weight 
in  influencing  its  decisions.  The  representatives  of  their 
125,000  communicants  would  all  but  balance  those  of  the 
1,400,000  in  the  larger  bodies.  It  is  true  that  the  scope 
of  the  powers  conferred  is  limited,  but  it  extends  to  dec- 
larations and  definitions  of  a  common  policy  in  regard  to 
questions  of  national  magnitude,  such  as  temperance,  pub- 
lic schools,  and  the  amendment  of  the  national  Constitution 
in  a  Christian  sense.  It  also  is  to  be  constituted  an  eccle- 
siastical board  of  arbitration  in  all  cases  of  dispute  between 
the  churches  embraced  in  the  federation. 

The  problem  which  the  proposal  really  raises  is  whether 
this  plan  would  serve  to  hasten  a  still  closer  union  or  to 
retard  it.  In  some  cases  these  half-way  measures  stand 
in  the  way  of  something  better.  In  others  they  give  such 
a  foretaste  of  its  advantages  as  strengthens  the  desire  for 
it.  This  was  notably  true  of  the  national  Articles  of  Con- 
federation under  which  the  American  people  managed 
their  affairs  until  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  The 
resemblance  of  the  Plan  to  those  Articles  is  so  close  as  to 
suggest  conscious  imitation.  They  also  created  a  single 
deliberative  body,  with  vaguely  defined  and  greatly  limited 
powers,  in  which  each  of  the  contracting  parties  had  an 
equal  vote  ;  they  also  conferred  power  in  relation  to  exter- 


POLITICAL    DISSENT.  2/9 

nal  affairs,  while  jealously  reserving  the  control  of  domestic 
matters ;  and  they  also  constituted  the  central  body  an 
umpire  in  disputes  between  the  parties  to  the  agreement. 
The  best  service  the  Articles  of  Confederation  rendered 
was  to  tide  over  a  period  of  excessive  colonial  jealousies, 
and  to  prepare  the  country  for  "  a  more  perfect  union  "  on 
a  national  basis.  We  might  well  put  up  with  the  faults 
found  with  the  plan  under  discussion  if  we  had  reasonable 
ground  for  the  expectation  that  it  would  do  its  work 
equally  well.  The  favor  with  which  it  has  been  received 
seems  to  promise  its  final  adoption  by  the  churches  con- 
cerned. 

One  of  the  lesser  Presbyterian  bodies  had  its  share  of 
agitation  and  distress  during  these  last  years.  The  disso- 
lution of  the  Reformed  Presbytery  of  North  America,  by 
the  death  of  Rev.  David  Steel,  Sr.,  gives  the  Synod  of  the 
Reformed  Presbyterian  (or  Covenanter)  Church  (O.  S.)  the 
hegemony  of  the  extreme  right  wing  of  the  Presbyterian 
host.  It  has  stood  for  old-fashioned,  theocratic  Presby- 
terianism  with  a  vigor  and  an  ability  which  remind  one  of 
John  Stuart  Mill's  saying  that  if  the  most  capable  men  are 
found  leading  the  van,  the  next  so  will  be  seen  bringing 
up  the  rear. 

Their  attitude  of  requiring  political  dissent  as  a  term  of 
communion,  which  they  inherited  from  the  Hillmen  of  the 
western  Lowlands,  they  have  maintained  for  two  hundred 
years.  In  that  time  they  never  have  sworn  an  oath  of  al- 
legiance to  any  government  on  earth,  or  held  communion 
with  any  who  did  so.  So  long  as  slavery  was  tolerated 
within  the  national  area  this  position  was  maintained  with- 
out much  difficulty..  Its  abolition  both  created  a  difficulty 
and  presented  an  opportunity.  The  difficulty  was  that  of 
keeping  their  membership  apart  from  a  political  system 
which,  in  their  opinion,  had  purged  off  its  worst  stain.    The 


280  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

opportunity  was  that  of  enlisting  the  deepened  national 
seriousness  in  securing  such  an  amendment  to  the  national 
Constitution  as  would  give  the  government  a  distinctly 
Christian  character,  and  thus  put  an  end  to  the  necessity 
for  their  political  dissent. 

It  was  with  this  purpose  that  the  National  Reform  Asso- 
ciation was  organized  in  the  city  of  Pittsburg  in  the  year 
1864,  after  preliminary  conventions  in  different  parts  of 
the  country.  The  aim  to  secure  support  outside  the  Cov- 
enanter Church  for  the  Covenanter  principle  has  had  con- 
siderable success.  Bishops  Mcllvaine,  Kerfoot,  Eastburn, 
Huntingdon,  Beckwith,  Bedell,  Jaggar  and  Kip  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Bisliop  Nicholson  of  the 
Reformed  Episcopal  Church,  Bishops  Haven  and  Simpson 
of  the  Methodist  Church,  Bishops  Weaver,  Wright,  and 
Dickson  of  the  United  Brethren  Church,  and  botJi  Bishops 
Escher  and  Dubs  of  the  EvangeHcal  Association,  gave 
their  adherence  to  the  platform  of  the  association,  showing 
that  the  children  of  the  Covenant  are  no  longer  afraid  of 
prelates.  Drs.  Charles  and  Archibald  Hodge,  Cuyler, 
Mcllvaine,  Craven,  Herrick  Johnson,  and  George  P.  Hays 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Drs.  Pressly,  Cooper,  and  Barr 
of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  Dr.  Boyce  of  the  As- 
sociate Reformed  Church,  South,  and  Dr.  Tayler  Lewis 
of  the  Reformed  Church,  came  to  its  support  from  a  less 
distance.  Among  the  Congregationalists  President  Julius 
H.  Seelye,  Joseph  Cook,  and  Dr.  George  B.  Cheever 
stepped  upon  its  platform.  Three  ex-governors,  nine 
judges,  nineteen  college  presidents,  and  twelve  professors 
were  found  among  its  officers  in  1891. 

The  contention  of  the  association  has  been  that  our 
efforts  for  political  and  social  reform  are  ineffective  and 
sporadic  because  they  lack  a  central  theocratic  aim.  Just 
as  we  would  bid  an  individual  sinner,  who  was  making 


THEOCRATIC  REFORM.  28  I 

efforts  to  cast  off  his  sins  one  by  one,  to  start  right  by  sur- 
rendering himself  to  God  and  invoking  his  grace,  so  the 
nation  needs  to  make  the  same  sort  of  right  start.  And 
as  in  the  individual  case  the  open  confession  of  his  new 
attitude  is  required  equally  by  God's  law,  and  by  the  reason 
of  things  as  committing  him  to  the  right  side,  so  should 
the  nation  make  public  and  formal  confession  of  its  having 
entered  into  covenant  with  God  to  serve  him  in  the  keep- 
ing of  his  law. 

The  monetary  support  of  the  association  has  come  chiefly 
from  the  Covenanter  body  and  has  developed  a  high  degree 
of  liberality  in  giving.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  thrown 
them  into  close  relations  with  the  champions  of  social  re- 
forms of  all  kinds,  especially  that  of  temperance,  and  has 
led  them. to  give  these  a  hearty  support. 

The  incongruity,  however,  of  urging  others  to  vote  for 
measures  for  which  they  would  not  vote  themselves  came 
to  be  felt  among  them,  especially  when  the  commonwealth 
of  Pennsylvania  invited  a  vote  on  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  which  would  have  prohibited  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  intoxicants  within  its  boundaries.  The  year 
before  this  the  Synod  had  ruled  that  political  dissent  did 
not  forbid  service  on  juries.  Following  the  lead  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Pittsburg,  it  now  decided  that  dissent  would 
not  be  impaired  by  Covenanters  having  themselves  placed 
on  the  registration  list  and  voting,  when  no  explicit  approval 
of  the  Constitution  was  required. 

To  many^both  of  the  younger  and  progressive  men,  and 
of  the  older  and  conservative,  this  seemed  an  abandonment 
of  political  dissent.  The  members  of  the  church  were  no 
longer  required  to  hold  themselves  aloof  from  the  political 
system.  They  were  even  permitted  to  incorporate  them- 
selves into  it,  provided  they  abstained  from  any  express 
approval  of  an  objectionable  document.     The  former  con- 


2S2  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

tended  that  the  Synod  could  not  stop  with  this,  but  must 
go  farther,  A  conference  was  held  in  a  church  in  the 
East  End  of  Pittsburg,  at  which  some  score  of  the  younger 
ministers  were  present,  the  immediate  object  being  advice 
to  one  of  their  number  who  found  himself  in  an  embarrass- 
ing position.  Quite  as  an  after- thought  they  drew  up  and 
signed  a  declaration  of  their  views — called  the  East  End 
Platform — in  which  they  treated  the  matter  of  political 
dissent  as  now  an  open  question,  and  published  this. 

The  Presbytery  of  Pittsburg  responded  by  suspending 
from  the  exercise  of  their  ministry  those  of  the  signers  who 
belonged  to  its  jurisdiction.  This  was  done  on  the  ground 
that  they  denied  the  binding  force  of  the  covenant  which 
the  church  had  adopted  in  1871,  and  which  pledged  its 
members  not  to  "  incorporate  "  themselves  with  any  political 
system  until  they  had  obtained  from  that  a  recognition  of 
Christ's  headship  over  the  nations.  The  suspended  min- 
isters appealed  to  the  Synod,  which  sustained  the  action 
of  the  Presbytery  and  proceeded  to  exercise  the  same 
rigorous  discipline  upon  the  other  signers,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  two,  against  whom  the  Presbytery  of  New  York 
was  proceeding.  That  Presbytery,  however,  showed  less 
vigor  than  did  the  Pittsburg  Presbytery,  and  the  two 
were  allowed  to  withdraw  from  the  church  without  formal 
censure. 

Most  of  the  signers  sought  an  ecclesiastical  home  in 
the  nearest  denomination,  the  United  Presbyterian  Church. 
Several  of  them  were  accompanied  by  large  sections  of 
their  congregations,  and  in  two  instances  the  church  prop- 
erty was  taken  with  them.  As  after  the  division  of  1833, 
the  adherents  of  the  Synod  sued  for  its  possession,  invok- 
ing in  defense  of  property  rights  the  State  to  which  they 
refuse  allegiance. 

One  effect  of  this  rigorous  discipline  has  been  an  altered 


STRIFE  BEFORE   STAGXAT/OiW  283 

spirit  in  the  affairs  of  the  National  Reform  Association. 
The  part  of  its  membership  which  Hes  outside  the  Cove- 
nanter Church  shows  some  indisposition  to  accept  the 
leadership  of  a  body  with  whose  ecclesiastical  proceedings 
they  cannot  sympathize. 

The  closing  pages  of  the  story  of  American  Presbyte- 
rianism  are  a  tale  of  agitation  and  of  friction.  Better  this, 
however,  than  stagnation  and  dull  acquiescence  in  tradi- 
tional beliefs  and  usages.  Even  this  evidences  life  and 
looks  to  a  future  in  which 

.     .     .     Generations  yet  unborn 
Shall  bless  and  magnify  the  Lord. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

RETROSPECT    AND    PROSPECT,    1705-1895. 

Nearly  two  centuries  have  elapsed  since  the  meeting 
of  the  first  American  Presbytery  announced  the  estabhsh- 
ment  of  the  synodical  method  of  church  government  in 
the  Enghsh  colonies  of  America.  There  had  been,  previ- 
ously to  that,  ministers  and  congregations  whose  ecclesi- 
astical character  had  been  determined  by  their  opposition 
to  the  prelatic  claims  of  the  Anglican  system  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  independency  of  "  the  New  England  way  " 
on  the  other.  Newbury  [port]  in  Massachusetts  (1635), 
Jamaica  on  Long  Island  (1677),  Nev.ark  in  New  Jersey 
(1667),  Snow  Hill  in  Maryland  (1682),  Rehoboth  in  Vir- 
ginia (1684),  Port  Royal  in  South  Carolina  (1684),  and 
Philadelphia  (1698)  stand  for  the  earliest  congregational 
beginnings  of  this  character  in  each  of  those  colonies. 
The  names  of  Francis  Doughty,  Richard  Denton,  Abra- 
ham Pierson,  Matthew  Hill,  Samuel  Da\'is,  F'rancis  Make- 
mie,  and  William  Dunlop  and  Archibald  Stobo  stand  for 
the  personal  leaders  of  this  antagonism  to  "  the  falsehood 
of  extremes."  But  until  the  Presbyterian  theory  of  church 
government  found  its  expression  in  the  organization  of  a 
Presbytery  it  could  not  be  said  to  have  really  taken  root. 

The  vine  thus  planted  has  come  to  overshadow  the 
whole  land.  Not  only  has  the  little  handful  of  Presby- 
terians, gathered  on  soil  preempted  for  many  years  by 
prelacy   and   independency,  grown   to   a  great   host,  with 

284 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  IDEA.  285 

1,278,000  communicants  in  1890,  representing  more  than 
four  millions  of  the  American  people,  but  the  Presbyterian 
method  of  pfovernment  has  had  a  marked  attraction  f 


fc> 


or 


both  the  antagonistic  forms.  The  prelacy  of  earlier  An- 
glicanism has  given  way,  in  America,  to  a  distinctly  Pres- 
byterian type  of  Episcopal  government ;  the  power  of  the 
bishop  has  yielded  to  that  of  the  Convention  and  its  Stand- 
ing Committee  to  an  extent  which  has  caused  some  strict 
canonists  to  doubt  if  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  can 
be  said  to  be  episcopally  governed.  Modern  Congrega- 
tionalism is  a  manifest  compromise  between  the  Independ- 
ent and  the  Presbyterian  way ;  and  since  the  organization 
of  the  National  Council  there  has  been  a  marked  growth 
in  the  disposition  to  look  to  it  as  the  authoritative  arbiter 
in  disputed  matters.  The  Lutherans  of  America,  laying 
aside  the  consistorial  methods  of  their  European  churches, 
have  adopted  synodical  government  as  the  best  suited  to 
their  needs,  and  associated  the  representatives  of  the  peo- 
ple with  their  pastors  in  their  local  and  national  councils. 
The  Methodists  have  been  obliged  to  modify  their  highly 
efficient  but  never  popular  system  of  clerical  government 
by  the  admission  of  lay  delegates  to  their  conferences ;  at 
the  same  time  the  *' preacher  "  of  earlier  days  has  been 
converted  by  a  like  attraction  into  the  "  pastor,"  and  obliged 
to  assume  the  duties  once  assigned  to  the  class-leaders. 
Even  the  Baptists,  who  have  been  the  stanchest  represent- 
atives of  independency,  ha\e  come  to  intrust  the  real  man- 
agement of  denominational  affairs  to  local  and  national 
associations,  the  former  treating  churches  which  walk  dis- 
orderly as  liable  to  the  discipline  of  exclusion  from  the 
association. 

As  a  whole  the  Protestantism  of  America  has  become 
Presbyterian  in  substance,  though  not  in  name.  A  hun- 
dred years  ago  there  were  no  churches,  outside  the  Re- 


286  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Ciiaf.  xxi. 

formed  household,  which  controlled  their  affairs  by  repre- 
sentative councils  of  pastors  and  people.  Now  this  is  true 
of  nearly  every  important  church  in  the  Protestant  family. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  this  is  because  Presbyterianism 
adheres  more  strictly  and  literally  to  the  letter  of  the 
Scriptures  than  did  its  rivals  in  method.  The  idea  of 
representation  on  which  it  is  based  was  unknown  to  the 
ancient  political  world,  and  was  not  anticipated  in  the  New 
Testament.  It  was  developed  in  the  rise  of  the  Teutonic 
nationalities  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  empire,  making 
possible  governments  at  once  freer  and  more  authoritative 
than  antiquity  had  known. ^  It  was  the  great  merit  of  Cal- 
vin, A  Lasco,  and  Knox  to  have  perceived  that  this  prin- 
ciple of  representation  had  been  providentially  developed 
for  the  benefit  of  the  church  no  less  than  of  the  state,  so 
that  provincial,  national,  and  ecumenical  unity  could  be 
attained  without  prelates,  primates,  and  popes ;  and  the 
liberties  of  the  Christian  people  secured  without  the  sever- 
ance of  the  church  into  independent  local  churches. 

It  is  in  America,  where  action  is  least  trammeled  by 
tradition,  that  the  common  approximation  to  this  type  is 
most  freely  illustrated.  The  meeting  of  the  first  Presby- 
tery in  Philadelphia  was  therefore  the  beginning  of  a  new 
era  for  the  American  churches,  in  that  the  modern  prin- 
ciple of  representative  government  there  and  then  found 
its  first  expression  as  regards  the  Christian  church  of  the 
New  World. 

The  Presbyterian  Church,  as  the  accredited  historic  rep- 
resentative of  this  great  principle,  which  has  brought  the 
collective  wisdom  of  each  religious  communion  to  bear 
upon  its  affairs,  has  not  discredited  it  by  the  manner  in 
which  it  has  applied  it.      It  always  has  been  a  body  whose 

1  See  my  "  Divine  Order  of  Human  Society"  (Philadelphia,  1891),  pp. 
116-120. 


A   DUAL    CHURCH.  287 

weight  was  greater  than  its  numbers  seemed  to  justify. 
While  it  has  not  escaped  the  peril  of  hasty  decisions,  espe- 
cially through  the  action  of  theological  panics  on  the  minds 
of  its  people,  these  have  been  exceptional  in  its  history, 
and  with  the  return  of  calmer  moods  there  has  been  a 
virtual  confession  and  a  practical  correction  of  the  mistake. 
The  great  moments  of  this  church's  history  have  been 
those  reunions  of  divided  forces,  when  the  faults  and  bit- 
ternesses of  the  past  have  been  swallowed  up  in  fraternal 
joy.  Next  to  these  have  been  those  of  noble  self-restraint, 
when  the  national  Synod  or  Assembly  has  calmed  the  local 
or  personal  agitation  by  a  wise  patience,  a  serene  temper, 
a  discriminating  decision  which  helped  men  to  distinguish 
a  difference  over  words  from  a  difference  in  the  great 
tilings  of  the  gospel.  This  wiser  and  more  Christian  role 
has  been  the  harder  to  play  because  of  the  church's  dual 
composition.  Scotch- Irish  and  New  Englander,  from  the 
very  outset  of  her  history,  have  been  blended  in  her  min- 
istry and  her  membership.  The  two  elements  have  much 
in  common,  and  yet  also  much  that  marks  them  as  diverse. 
Both  are  keenly  interested  in  doctrinal  teaching,  and  as 
such  they  have  always  inclined  to  those  conceptions  of  the 
relation  of  God  to  man  which  lie  out  of  the  range  of  super- 
ficial thought,  but  commend  themselves  to  men  of  pro- 
founder  reflection.  Both  incline  to  construe  those  rela- 
tions not  from  the  point  of  view  of  what  is  pleasing  to 
man,  but  what  is  honoring  to  God.  Both,  therefore,  are 
instinctive  Calvinists,  regarding  the  glory  of  God  as  the 
end  of  man's  creation  and  of  his  spiritual  history.  And 
both  assign  to  right  conceptions  of  these  great  realities  an 
influence  upon  character  and  destiny  which  many  regard 
as  excessive. 

The  contrast  of  the  two  elements  is  found  in  the  active 
and  discursive  intellect  of  the  New  Englander  and  the 


288  THE   rRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xm. 

solid  conservatism  of  tlie  Scotch-Irish.  The  one  has  tried 
to  "  improve  "  all  previous  statements  of  Calvinism  ;  the 
other  to  appreciate  them.  The  one  tends  to  a  restless 
spirit  of  change,  in  which  the  largest  truths  are  supposed 
to  need  a  constant  overhauling ;  the  other  to  a  dull  ac- 
quiescence, in  which  whatever  the  past  has  given  us  is  ac- 
cepted for  that  very  reason.  These  are  their  perils.  The 
fusion  of  the  two  tendencies  into  a  spirit  at  once  wisely 
conservative  and  wisely  progressive  has  been  the  problem 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  more  than  of  any  other  in 
America.  It  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  solved;  our 
very  divisions  into  eleven  communions  of  varying  degrees 
of  liberality  and  conservatism  are  evidence  to  the  con- 
trary. But  nothing  will  more  help  us  to  the  right  attitude 
for  reaching  the  solution  than  the  study  of  our  own  his- 
tory. That  furnishes  evidence  enough  of  the  grand  ser- 
vice rendered  to  the  religious  life  of  the  nation  by  Pres- 
byterian conservatism.  It  stood  by  the  most  unpopular 
and  decried  doctrines  of  the  Bible  through  periods  when 
the  public  mind  was  least  fitted  for  their  reception,  until 
soberer  and  more  profound  thinking  came  to  their  vindi- 
cation. It  thus  saved  to  the  general  religious  conscious- 
ness some  of  the  greatest  principles,  which  otherwise  it 
might  have  taken  centuries  to  recover.  It  asserted  the 
principle  of  loyalty  to  the  whole  scope  of  inspired  teaching, 
in  the  face  of  tendencies  to  choose  and  pick  what  was  the 
more  pleasing  to  human  nature,  or  what  an  English  writer 
calls  "the  pleasanter  parts  of  Christianity."  Thus  the 
Presbyterian  Church  has  played  the  part  of  a  check  upon 
change  which  was  not  progress,  and  has  vindicated  the 
integrity  of  the  gospel  of  God's  grace,  with  both  its  good- 
ness and  its  severity.  It  never  has  cut  its  garment  ac- 
cording to  the  fashions  set  by  the  spirit  of  the  age,  which, 
indeed,  Richter  says,  is  what  our  fathers  called  Antichrist. 


THE   LESSONS   OF  HISTORY.  289 

On  the  other  hand,  history  is  no  mere  eulogist  of  con- 
servatism. It  exhibits  everywhere  the  necessity  of  change 
in  human  conceptions  and  statements  of  divine  truths,  and 
the  reahty  of  a  deeper  and  more  vital  apprehension  of 
them  under  the  Spirit's  leading  of  the  church.  It  shows 
that  not  the  most  conservative  of  to-day  are  able  to  think 
in  the  limits  and  find  utterance  in  the  phrases  of  a  cent- 
ury ago.  Whatever  lives  must  change ;  only  the  dead 
perpetuates  itself  from  age  to  age  unaltered.  The  Bible 
itself  furnishes  illustrations  of  this  on  every  page.  Our 
Lord  pointed  to  them  when  he  said  that  certain  things 
had  been  allowed  to  their  fathers  because  they  were 
bound  by  mental  limitations  which  had  passed  away,  and 
when  he  censured  the  spirit  in  which  they  asked  him  to 
repeat  the  act  of  Elijah.  He  thus  recognized  the  pro- 
gressiveness  of  revelation  within  the  period  of  canonic 
Scripture.  Nor  can  we  fail  to  recognize  the  continuance 
of  this  progress  in  the  Spirit's  guidance  of  the  church. 
Luther  sees  farther  than  Augustine ;  men  of  our  age  see 
farther  than  Luther  did.  History  alike  forbids  us  to  de- 
spise the  past  and  to  rest  in  the  past.  It  discredits  alike 
the  change  which  proceeds  from  the  positive  to  mere  ne- 
gation, and  the  stolidity  which  excludes  all  change  what- 
ever.     It  condemns  mere  liberalism  and  mere  inaction. 

No  history  illustrates  this  more  distinctly  than  does  the 
history  of  the  ecclesiastical  life  of  America,  and  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  supplies  as  good  a  point  of  view  as  any 
other  from  which  to  consider  it.  As  has  been  indicated 
already,  that  history  falls  into  three  great  periods,  whose 
spirit  has  affected  all  the  American  churches,  though  in 
varying  ways  and  different  degrees. 

The  first  was  that  of  Puritan  influence,  which  had  three 
notes :  intellectual  interest  in  doctrine,  Scriptural  literal- 
ism, and  practical  individuaHsm.      In  that  age  Christianity 


290  THE   rRESBYTEKIANS,        '  [Chap.  xxi. 

was  SO  exclusively  regarded  as  a  doctrinal  system  that  the 
boundary-line  between  the  church  and  the  school  of  the- 
ology was  practically  obliterated,  and  the  distinction  be- 
tween theology  and  faith  lost  sight  of.  Of  this  the 
Westminster  Confession  is  the  best  monument.  Men  had 
the  sublimest  confidence  in  the  adequacy  of  logical  pro- 
cesses to  deal  with  divine  mysteries,  but  lacked  that  ele- 
ment of  reverence  which  should  furnish  the  atmosphere  of 
such  discussion.  Milton's  deficiency  in  awe  is  that  of  his 
age ;  and  Spurgeon,  who  best  represented  the  Puritan 
thought  in  our  own  century,  confessed  to  an  equal  want  in 
himself.  This  orthodox  rationalism  needed  but  to  cool  to 
become  negative  and  unorthodox ;  and  the  cooling  was 
seen  in  all  the  British  churches,  especially  the  Presbyte- 
rian churches  of  England  and  of  Ireland.  In  both  stages 
it  stands  convicted  of  want  of  respect  for  the  historical, 
which  also  is  seen  in  its  Scriptural  literalism.  It  looked 
into  the  New  Testament  for  a  Book  of  Leviticus,  and  tried 
to  construct  one  out  of  isolated  passages  and  incidental 
notices.  It  demanded  an  express  warrant  of  Scripture  for 
every  arrangement  and  institution,  and  turned  its  back 
upon  the  whole  experience  of  the  church  since  the  days 
of  the  apostles.  It  was  this  feature  of  Puritanism  which 
elicited  Hooker's  great  treatise,  **  The  Laws  of  the  Eccle- 
siastical Polity  "  (1594-97) ;  but  the  extreme  advocates  of 
the  principle  drove  even  the  Westminster  divines  to  de- 
clare that  "  there  are  some  circumstances  concerning  the 
worship  of  God  and  the  government  of  the  church,  com- 
mon to  human  actions  and  societies,  which  are  to  be  or- 
dered by  the  light  of  nature  and  Christian  prudence." 
Even  this,  it  will  be  noticed,  contains  no  concession  to 
history.  And  in  the  same  weakness  of  perception  of  the 
worth  of  the  historical,  and  of  the  blessing  of  being  our- 
selves embraced  and  molded  by  historic  forms  of  society, 


THE   STREXaril   OF  PURITANISM.  29 1 

is  to  be  found  the  reason  for  the  excessive  individualism 
of  Puritanism.  It  always  tended  to  the  purest  independ- 
ency, first  of  the  local  church  and  then  of  the  individual 
member  within  that  church.  It  had  an  instinctive  repug- 
nance to  synodical  authority,  and  to  the  inclusion  of  in- 
fants among  the  baptized  members  of  the  church,  as  im- 
plying some  religious  solidarity  of  the  family,  and  point- 
ing to  the  organic  character  of  the  church.  When  most 
logical  it  became  Baptist;  in  its  less  logical  forms  it  denied 
that  baptism  admitted  to  actual  membership  in  the  church, 
and  therefore  refused  baptism  to  the  children  of  any  but 
those  who  had  become  communicants  upon  giving  credi- 
ble evidence  of  their  regeneration. 

It  would  be  ungracious  to  dwell  only  on  these  negative 
sides  of  the  Puritan  spirit,  to  the  neglect  of  those  ele- 
ments of  positive  strength  which  had  root  in  the  Calvin- 
istic  theology.  Its  greatness  lay  in  an  ethical  strenuous- 
ness  which  has  worked  itself  into  the  fiber  of  Scotch  and 
American  character,  though  in  different  ways,  and  which 
is  reflected  in  the  literature,  the  social  ideals,  and  the 
finest  personal  types  of  both  countries.  Next  to  this  may 
be  put  its  loyalty  to  the  cause  of  human  freedom,  in  op- 
position to  dynastic  and  oligarchic  rule  in  both  church 
and  state.  The  theology  which  was  charged  with  under- 
mining human  responsibility  was  in  effect  the  most  stren- 
uous asserter  of  that  principle.  "  There  is  no  system 
which  equals  Calvinism,''  says  Beecher,  *'  in  intensifying  to 
the  last  degree  ideas  of  moral  excellence  and  purity  of  char- 
acter. There  never  was  a  system  since  the  world  began 
which  puts  upon  man  such  motives  to  holiness,  or  which 
builds  batteries  which  sweep  the  whole  ground  of  sin  with 
such  horrible  artillery."  The  view  of  our  human  nature 
which  has  been  charged  with  humbling  man  below  his 
deserts  has  stimulated  him  to  the  most  resolute  assertion 


292  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

of  his  human  dignity  and  personal  rights  against  the  en- 
croachments of  kings  and  nobles,  popes  and  prelates.  ''  It 
would  be  hard,"  says  John  Fiske,  "  to  overrate  the  debt 
of  civil  liberty  which  mankind  owes  to  John  Calvin." 

These  two  paradoxes  find  ample  illustration  in  the  his- 
tory of  Presbyterianism  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean.  The 
latter  has  been  amply  recognized  since  Macaulay  first 
fixed  attention  on  the  facts  by  his  essay  on  Milton.  The 
former  has  been  obscured  by  a  good  deal  of  unfair  histor- 
ical writing,  in  which  Robert  Chambers,  Henry  Thomas 
Buckle,  Mr.  Craig-Brown,  and  others  have  represented 
the  disciplinary  work  of  the  Scotch  Presbytery  and  Ses- 
sion as  consisting  mainly  of  witch-hunting  and  the  sup- 
pression of  popular  sports.  Bishop  Creighton,  in  review- 
ing the  last  writer's  work,  says : 

"  Mr.  Craig-Brown  is  revolted  by  the  stern  aspect  of 
Calvinism,  and  denounces  the  discipline  of  the  Kirk  Ses- 
sion as  little  better  than  that  of  the  Inquisition.  Yet  that 
discipline,  repugnant  as  it  is  to  modern  ways  of  thinking, 
did  much  toward  forming  the  strong  character  of  the 
Scottish  people.  Without  it  the  wild  borderfolk  would 
never  have  been  changed  into  the  sterling,  upright  people 
with  whom  we  are  familiar.  If  the  idea  of  righteousness 
which  was  enforced  by  Presbyterianism  was  narrow  and 
not  altogether  lively,  it  still  upheld  a  high  idea  of  recti- 
tude, and  the  Kirk  did  a  civilizing  work  which  there  was 
no  other  agency  to  undertake.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  its  discipline  retained  all  the  strength  of  character 
which  had  been  generated  in  the  unquiet  times  of  border 
warfare ;  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  only  a  stern  and 
vigorous  system  could  have  given  a  moral  direction  to 
that  strength.  The  records  of  the  Kirk  Session  tell  us 
more  of  the  process  of  the  purification  of  national  charac- 
ter than  they  do  of  religious  fanaticism." 


THE  KIRK'S  DISCIPLINE.  293 

Another  English  writer,  of  EpiscopaHan  sympathies, 
Mr.  Richard  Heath,  testifies  to  the  excellent  influence  of 
the  Presbyterian  discipline  where  it  has  crossed  the  border 
and  established  itself  in  the  northern  shires  of  England : 
"  The  Northumbrian  peasant  is  largely  influenced  by  a 
form  of  Christianity  that  not  only  recognizes  that  he  is 
a  man,  but  that,  without  ceasing  to  be  a  laboring  man, 
tending  the  sheep  or  following  the  plow,  he  can  be  chosen, 
and  is  chosen,  and  found  worthy  to  be  an  elder  of  the 
church."  He  goes  on  to  speak  of  "  the  superior  educative 
power  of  the  Presbyterian  to  the  Church  of  England  sys- 
tem, as  seen  in  the  higher  form  of  manhood  and  woman- 
hood of  the  people  under  its  control.  The  reason  is  clear: 
the  one  is  a  democratic  religion,  the  other  the  most  aris- 
tocratic in  the  world.  It  is  this  characteristic  of  the 
Church  of  England  which  is  mainly  responsible  for  the 
degraded  condition  of  the  English  rural  poor." 

In  our  o\Vn  country  the  task  of  Presbyterian  discipline 
among  the  unrestrained  frontiersmen  of  the  New  World 
was  quite  as  difficult  as  along  the  Scottish  border.  For 
reasons  already  indicated,  the  immigrant  population  of  the 
new  settlements  had  to  be  followed  up  most  energetically 
with  church  and  school  agencies,  to  maintain  what  was 
saved  and  retrieve  what  was  lost  of  good  influences  in  the 
land  of  their  birth. 

Between  Puritan  and  anti-Puritan  the  Presbyterian 
Church  held  a  middle  position.  It  set  its  face  against 
congregational  independency  by  asserting  the  existence, 
visibility,  and  lawful  authority  of  the  larger  church  and 
its  synodical  government.  It  found  in  baptism  the  rite  of 
admission  to  membership  in  the  church,  with  all  its  privi- 
leges, including  the  baptism  of  the  children  of  baptized 
persons.  Acting  on  the  judgment  of  charity,  it  admitted 
to  the  Lord's  table  all  such  as  had  been  brought  up  as 


294  ^^^   PRESBYTERIAA^S.  [Chap.  xxt. 

Christians  and  were  free  from  scandal  of  life.  It  sought 
thus  to  embrace  the  whole  people  of  a  Christian  country 
within  the  scope  of  church  influences  and  in  personal  con- 
tact with  the  means  of  grace.  Yet  it  conceded  to  Puritan- 
ism the  necessity  of  vindicating  the  polity  of  the  church 
by  proof-texts  from  the  Scriptures,  and  it  adopted  a  sys- 
tematic theology  built  up  by  logical  inference.  To  Puri- 
tanism, also,  it  conceded  the  relinquishment  of  liturgic 
worship. 

Its  losses  to  Puritanism  were  very  great  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic.  Its  English  churches  became  merely 
Independent,  and  afterward  Arian.  In  America  the 
Presbyterian  colonists  from  England  rapidly  fell  away  from 
Presbyterianism  into  the  unstable  compromise  with  Inde- 
pendency called  Congregationalism.  The  literalism  which 
demanded  an  express  Scriptural  sanction  for  every  feature 
of  the  church's  polity  was  pressed  with  so  much  zeal,  and 
reinforced  so  well  by  the  example  of  the  Plymouth  sepa- 
ratists, that  the  efforts  of  John  Eliot,  the  Mathers,  and  other 
opponents  of  Independency  came  to  nothing.  Even  the 
later  Presbyterian  emigration  from  Ulster  to  New  Eng- 
land was  unable  to  maintain  its  ecclesiastical  character  in 
surroundings  hostile  to  the  Presbyterian  idea,  and  under 
laws  enacted  in  the  interest  of  Independency.  It  is  only 
in  our  own  days,  and  chiefly  through  immigration  from 
the  seaboard  provinces  of  Canada,  that  Presbyterianism 
has  again  raised  its  head  in  New  England,  after  being  long 
confined  to  a  handful  of  feeble  and  imperfectly  organized 
congregations. 

The  final  establishment  of  Presbyterian  order  in  the 
Middle  States  was  like  the  settlement  of  Pennsylvania  in 
the  political  sphere.  As  the  one  supplied  the  keystone  of 
the  arch,  a  community  committed  to  neither  Cavalier  nor 
Puritan  ideals  of  society,  so  the  other  supplied  the  miss- 


THE    GREAT  AWAKEXING. 


295 


ing  link  in  the  ecclesiastical  order.  It  drew  to  itself  dissat- 
isfied elements  of  both  the  extreme  systems,  Puritans  from 
New  England  and  Episcopalians  of  Virginia.  It  at  once 
began  the  fusion  of  the  intense  Presbyterians  of  Ulster  with 
the  New  Englanders,  who  thus  in  the  Middle  States  under- 
went what  biologists  call  ''reversion  to  type."  It  even 
threatened  to  extend  this  reversion  to  New  England  itself, 
as  when  the  Connecticut  churches  made  a  marked  approach 
to  Presbyterianism  in  the  Saybrook  Platform  (1708),  and 
came  to  describe  themselves  as  Presbyterians  even  in  official 
documents.  Thus  from  the  first  the  Presbyterian  Church 
may  be  said  to  have  assumed  a  central  position  among  the 
churches  of  America. 

The  second  period  opens  with  the  Great  Awakening, 
which  began  in  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  and  then 
spread  to  the  Presbyterian,  before  the  rise  of  English 
Methodism.  The  excessive  intellectualism  of  Puritanism 
had  begun  to  avenge  itself  in  a  chilled  and  chilling  atmos- 
phere around  the  religious  life.  Its  disregard  of  history 
bore  fruit  in  a  weaker  grasp  on  the  great  realities  of  the 
historic  revelation.  The  Calvinistic  churches  seemed  likely 
to  run  a  downward  course  through  the  successive  stages 
of  Arminianism,  Arianism,  deism,  and  naturalism.  This 
was  more  felt  in  America  even  than  in  the  British  Islands, 
because  colonists  are  more  likely  to  drift  from  their  moor- 
ings than  are  the  people  of  long-settled  countries,  where 
the  conservative  influence  of  institution  and  of  custom  is 
more  constant.  From  this  fate  the  nation  was  saved  by 
the  pietistic  movement  of  1728-44,  which  brought  back 
warmth  and  fervency  into  religion,  and  lighted  anew  the 
fires  of  spiritual  zeal.  In  all  its  earlier  stages  it  was  so  dis- 
tinctly a  Calvinistic  movement  that  its  friends  hailed  it  as 
the  check  to  the  drift  into  Arminian  laxity,  and  Edwards 
challenged  the  Arminians  of  New  England  to  reconcile 


296  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

such  a  visible  display  of  sovereign  grace  with  their  theory 
that  man  turns  himself  to  God.  Yet  in  the  Calvinistic 
camp  it  bred  sore  divisions,  of  which  the  rending  of  the 
Presbyterian  Synod  in  1741  was  the  most  striking,  though 
not  the  most  irreprarable.  The  Ulster  famine  of  1726  had 
greatly  increased  the  immigrants  in  that  and  the  follow- 
ing years.  These  viewed  with  distrust  a  movement  to 
which  their  native  province  offered  no  parallel,  and  they 
strengthened  the  hands  of  those  ministers  who  regarded  the 
new  stress  on  religious  emotion  as  likely  to  undermine  the 
interest  in  doctrinal  soundness.  And  their  distrust  was 
not  removed  by  the  attitude  the  friends  of  the  Awakening 
assumed  toward  those  who  distrusted  it.  The  church  was 
rent  not  along  the  line  of  cleavage  between  Scotch- Irish 
and  New  Englander — for  the  most  zealous  revivalists  were 
Scotch- Irish — and  yet  in  such  a  way  as  threatened  a  prac- 
tical severance  of  the  two  elements  into  two  communions. 
It  was  an  indication  of  God's  good  purpose  for  the  future 
of  the  church  that  the  two  were  brought  together  after 
seventeen  years  of  separation. 

The  Methodism  of  the  Awakening  was  no  more  historic 
than  the  Puritanism  of  the  previous  period  had  been.  It 
by  no  means  sufficed  to  heal  all  the  breaches  of  Zion.  It 
offered  no  substantial  check  to  the  Puritan  individualism, 
but  rather  lent  it  a  new  sanction  by  making  true  religion  a 
matter  chiefly  of  isolated  personal  emotion,  which  reaches 
a  man  by  a  channel  which  has  nothing  to  do  with  human 
kinship,  social  relations,  or  early  nurture.  It  thus  severed 
it  from  public  and  social  duties  to  an  extent  which  threat- 
ened a  return  to  monastic  asceticism,  and  made  a  conscious 
conversion  from  enmity  to  friendship  with  God  the  only 
way  of  entrance  into  the  kingdom.  It  therefore  could  lay 
but  little  stress  on  the  influences  of  the  Christian  home,  or 
of  the  providential  leading  in  the  individual  life.      House- 


FAULTS  AND  MERITS.  297 

hold  training  and  catechetical  instruction  of  the  young  by 
their  pastor  were  both  thrust  into  the  background,  or  even 
disused,  as  of  little  value.  If  infant  baptism  were  still 
continued — and  the  "Separate  "  churches  of  New  England 
which  grew  out  of  the  Awakening  commonly  became  Bap- 
tist churches,  while  the  converts  in  the  Southern  colonies 
went  the  same  way  mostly — it  was  rather  through  instinct 
or  custom  than  by  force  of  logic.  The  baptized  child  was 
too  generally  given  to  understand  that  he  could  be  nothing 
but  a  child  of  Satan  until  a  revival  came  to  convert  him, 
and  that  his  chance  of  eternal  life  depended  on  his  embrac- 
ing that  favored  moment.  This  rigid  *'  Methodism  "  of  the 
Awakening,  which  stands  in  such  contrast  to  the  mani- 
foldness  of  the  spiritual  life  as  exemplified  in  the  Script- 
ures and  the  past  history  of  the  church,  together  with  the 
habits  of  anxious  introspection  it  fostered,  tended  to  im- 
part a  monotony  to  Christian  experience,  and  a  dreariness 
to  the  literature  which  records  it,  for  which  a  parallel  must 
be  sought  among  the  German  Pietists  and  the  ascetic  lit- 
erature of  the  later  Jesuits. 

It  would  again  be  ungracious  to  dwell  only  on  these 
weaker  sides  of  the  Awakening.  In  the  good  providence 
of  God  it  saved  America  from  irreligion  and  barbarism. 
It  lifted  the  spiritual  life  of  the  churches  out  of  a  dull  and 
fruitless  moderation  into  an  inspired  and  aggressive  energy. 
It  set  the  Christian  people  free  to  exhort  and  supplicate 
as  in  apostolia  times,  by  supplementing  the  Sunday  ser- 
vice with  the  prayer-meeting.  It  gave  a  distinctly  Chris- 
tian character  to  the  church's  praises  by  supplementing 
the  Book  of  Psalms  with  Christian  hymns.  It  carried  the 
message  of  divine  love  into  dark  and  neglected  places  of 
the  country,  and  awakened  the  voice  of  thankful  song  along 
the  frontier  settlements  and  among  the  Indian  tribes.  It 
aroused  the  church  to  a  sense  of  its  duty  to  the  heathen 


298  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

world,  and  thui  ^aid  the  foundation  of  the  missionary 
enterprise.  In  its  la  "  stages  it  adopted  the  Sunday- 
school  and  similar  ag  ies  into  the  service  of  the  church, 
and  created  the  macL  ery  of  wholesale  agitation  for  the 
support  of  religious  enterprises  and  moral  reforms.  It 
put  down  the  slave-trade,  prepared  the  way  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery,  and  set  itself  to  the  work  of  dealing  with 
intemperance  and  other  social  evils.  It  wrought,  in  fact,  a 
social  revolution,  whose  extent  is  hid  from  us  by  the  fact 
that  we  have  always  lived  among  its  results  and  do  not 
knowwith  what  a  price  they  were  bought  for  us.  **  Other 
men  labored,  and  ye  are  entered  into  their  labors." 

Of  the  American  churches  some  simply  antagonized  the 
Awakening;  others  gave  themselves  up  to  it  completely, 
or  even  took  their  rise  from  its  activity.  The  Presbyte- 
rian Church  again  fulfilled  its  mission  by  doing  neither. 
It  labored  successfully  to  keep  alive  the  interest  in  pure 
theology,  as  did  also  the  Puritan  churches  of  New  Eng- 
land and  the  Reformed  churches  of  the  Middle  States, 
thus  counteracting  the  Methodist  tendency  to  undervalue 
doctrine  where  it  was  not  seen  to  be  directly  available  for 
edification.  It  yielded  much — some  might  say  too  much 
— to  the  practical  theology  of  the  movement,  in  accepting 
the  revival  meeting  while  seeking  to  abate  its  excitements, 
and  in  coming  to  regard  a  conscious  conversion  as  the  pre- 
requisite to  full  communion  with  the  church.  It  retained 
infant  baptism  on  the  ground  that  the  Abrahamic  covenant 
embraced  the  children  of  God's  covenant  people  in  the 
New  Testament  no  less  than  the  Old.  But  its  ministers 
tacitly  and  very  generally  went  over  to  the  Congregation- 
alist  position,  in  confining  baptism  to  the  children  of  com- 
municants. It  allowed  the  pastor's  catechetical  instruction 
to  be  displaced  by  the  labors  of  the  Sunday-school  teacher. 


A   MEDIATIXG    CHURCH.  299 

because  it  had  ceased  to  regard  that  inst  'Ction  as  leading 
on  to  communion.  Yet  it  sought'  j>  maintain  household 
rehgion  and  family  worship,  as  w-  ^as  the  instruction  of 
children  by  their' parents  in  Bible  c  id  catechism.  It  also 
labored  to  support  Christian  schools,  in  which  instruction 
in  natural  and  historical  science  should  not  be  divorced 
from  recognition  of  the  Creator  and  the  Ruler  of  man- 
kind. And  in  its  attitude  toward  the  public  life  of  the 
nation  it  still  stood  for  the  principle  that  the  state  is  the 
creature  of  God,  accountable  to  him,  obliged  by  his  laws. 
It  thus  practically  refused  to  accept  the  Methodist  theory 
that  mankind  at  large  is  to  be  regarded  as  '*  the  world  "  at 
enmity  with  God,  from  which  individuals  may  be  brought 
over  by  conversion  into  churches,  whose  membership  can 
give  reasonable  evidence  of  regeneration.  The  old  "  judg- 
ment of  charity"  lingered  on  as  a  tradition  when  it  had 
fallen  into  oblivion  as  a  doctrine. 

Into  the  good  works  which  grew  out  of  the  Methodist 
movement  the  Presbyterian  Church  entered  with  as  much 
alacrity  as  was  consistent  with  its  conservative  character. 
Without  accepting  the  Methodist  view  that  the  expedi- 
ency of  immediate  success  is  the  only  test  of  right  method, 
it  took  up  the  new  methods  so  far  as  these  commended 
themselves  to  its  judgment.  It  became  a  church  of  Sun- 
day-schools, prayer-meetings,  missionary  societies,  and 
voluntary  associations  for  the  promotion  of  all  kinds  of 
good  works.  It  gave  support  to  the  great  moral  reforms, 
without  losing  its  head  over  any  of  them,  or  expecting 
from  the  success  of  any  the  immediate  arrival  of  the  mil- 
lennium. It  felt  too  deeply  the  corruption  of  our  human 
nature  to  share  in  the  hopes  of  those  who  expected  lightly 
to  bring  it  to  perfection  by  changes  of  environment  or  of 
method ;  and  yet  it  worked  for  both  with  the  stolid  perse- 


300  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

verance  befitting  a  service  done  to  God.  It  got  the  bless- 
ing whicH  rewards  such  a  service,  as  did  the  sister-churches. 
Its  foreign-missionary  enterprise  lifted  it  out  of  a  narrow 
and  self-satisfied  occupation  with  its  own  affairs  and  be- 
longings, into  a  work  so  large  and  absorbing  as  to  keep 
all  its  energies  on  the  strain.  Its  home-mission  labor,  to 
keep  the  newer  States  and  the  Territories  from  falling  to 
a  level  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  below  that  of  the 
older  States,  was  blessed  to  both.  This  saved  the  West 
from  barbarism  and  the  East  from  miserly  selfishness.  It 
identified  religion  with  generosity,  and  showed  ways  in 
which  the  very  power  of  accumulation  might  be  turned  to 
the  service  of  God  and  of  the  country. 

Yet  the  Awakening  also  cost  the  Presbyterian  Church 
heavy  losses  of  its  natural  adherents,  especially  in  the 
Southwest.  In  its  maintenance  of  the  interest  in  Chris- 
tian doctrine  it  was  heavily  handicapped  by  its  adherence 
to  a  Confession  of  Failh  unsuited  to  the  needs  of  the 
country  and  the  time.  The  precise,  scholastic  statements 
of  the  Westminster  divines,  and  their  wire-drawn  distinc- 
tions, were  naturally  out  of  harmony  with  the  revivalist 
spirit,  and  those  who  preached  them  found  no  access  ex- 
cept to  congregations  trained  to  appreciate  such  preach- 
ing. The  masses  wanted  a  preacher  to  show  warmth  of 
feeling,  simplicity  in  doctrine,  insight  into  the  perplexities 
and  sorrows  of  the  human  heart.  These  found  rather  a 
help  than  a  check  in  Puritan  doctrinalism,  and  the  major- 
ity of  the  children  of  the  Ulster  immigration  fell  away 
from  the  church  of  their  fathers.  The  more  moderate 
organized  a  church  of  their  own,  Presbyterian  in  order, 
and  less  drastic  in  doctrine  than  the  Westminster  stand- 
ards, exhibiting  a  futile  attempt  at  compromise  between 
popular  Arminianism  and  traditional  Calvinism.  A  far 
greater  number  found  a  spiritual  home  among  the  Method- 


THE    CHURCHLY  AGE.  3OI 

ists,  the  Baptists,  the  Disciples,  the  Christians,  or  even  the 
Shakers.  And  all  this  from  Calvinism  "putting  its  worst 
foot  foremost." 

The  third  period  in  American  church  history  began 
about  sixty  years  ago.  It  is  that  in  which  the  historical 
side  of  Christianity  is  more  highly  appreciated  than  at  any 
earlier  time. 

Puritanism  appreciated  strongly  the  intellectual  side  of 
Christianity  ;  Methodism,  the  emotional.  In  neither  did 
the  historical  element  come  to  its  rights.  Yet  Christianity 
is  as  distinctly  history  as  it  is  doctrine  and  emotion.  To 
do  justice  to  this  third  element  is  the  problem  of  our  own 
age.  To  this  end  we  must  attain  a  truer  recognition  of 
our  vital  relation  to  the  historic  fact  of  the  Incarnation. 
The  years  of  that  wonderful  ministry  are  no  part  of  a  dead 
and  gone  past ;  nor  are  they  related  to  us  merely  through 
some  change  in  our  legal  status  before  the  divine  law  that 
was  then  accompHshed.  They  are  nearer  to  us  than  our 
own  yesterdays,  and  form  a  substantial  part  of  every 
Christian's  life. 

Hence  all  that  comes  to  us  from  that  past  on  the  lines 
of  history  acquires  a  high  significance  to  us.  The  church 
is  the  witness  of  the  gathering  of  all  under  the  one  Head 
(avazs'^aAaLwaaad-a'.,  Eph.  i.  10)  of  all  the  elect  of  God. 
The  sacraments  speak  of  his  perpetual  presence  with  the 
church,  to  purify  and  nourish  her  life  and  that  of  her 
members.  They  are  not  symbols  of  an  absent,  but  wit- 
nesses of  a  present  Christ.  We  are  to  come  to  them  with 
the  faith  that  the  heavenly  element  behind  them  is  not 
less  real  and  operative  than  the  earthly  element  present 
to  our  senses.  And  this  involves  no  confusion  of  the  two 
elements,  as  though  the  earthly  were  made  divine  or  the 
heavenly  bound  to  the  earthly.  Baptismal  grace  and  the 
real  presence  in  the  sacrament  were  the  common  teaching 


302  THE   rRESBYTEKIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

of  all  the. churches  of  the  Reformation.  These  ordinances 
they  declared  to  be  the  means  of  grace — not  mere  witnesses 
to  the  possibility  of  grace,  nor  mere  helps,  through  the 
law  of  mental  association,  to  lift  our  thoughts  to  profit- 
able meditation  and  resolution. 

In  this  view,  also,  the  whole  course  of  church  history 
becomes  instructive  to  us.  Whatever  the  sins,  ignorances, 
and  negligences  in  it  that  require  forgiveness,  Christ  was 
in  it  all.  It  did  not  cease  to  be  his  church  with  the  death 
of  the  apostles  or  of  Augustine  of  Hippo,  and  begin  to  be 
such  again  with  Martin  Luther.  Nor  is  the  connection 
between  the  two  points  to  be  sought  in  the  Waldenses, 
whatever  their  merits,  but  in  the  great  central  current 
where  we  find  the  marks  of  Christ  in  such  men  as  Ber- 
nard of  Clairvaux,  Francis  of  Assisi,  Thomas  Aquinas, 
John  Tauler,  John  Gerson,  Thomas  a  Kempis,  Nicholas  of 
Cusa,  Savonarola,  and  the  other  great  witnesses  by  life 
and  doctrine  to  the  living  presence  of  Christ  in  the  world. 
So  the  Reformers  taught,  having  no  more  will  to  give  up 
the  church's  history  to  Rome  than  to  give  up  the  Bible. 
Yet  when  Philip  Schaff,  then  freshly  arrived  from  Switzer- 
land, enunciated  this  more  generous  view  of  the  past,  he 
was  assailed  as  a  Romanizer  by  Dr.  Berg  and  others. 
His  heresy  has  become  almost  a  commonplace  now,  and 
the  theory  of  Waldensian  continuity  has  given  way  partly 
before  its  honest  refutation  by  their  own  historical  scholars. 
And  the  result  is  seen  in  the  free  use  of  the  medieval 
hymns  in  our  hymnaries,  and  in  the  high  esteem  in  which 
the  "  Imitation  of  Christ  "  stands. 

Closely  connected  with  this  new  respect  for  the  historic 
past  is  the  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  in  its  spiritual 
significance.  We  grow  impatient  with  the  ugly,  the  un- 
seemly, and  the  sordid,  when  we  find  these  connected 
with  the  church  and  its  worship.      We  acquire  sympathy 


THE   SOCIAL   SPIRIT.  303 

with  the  men  of  the  past,  who  spent  toil  and  weahh  on 
grand  and  graceful  edifices  for  the  divine  worship.  In  this 
we  enter  into  sympathy  with  the  divine  purpose  which 
has  molded  our  world,  our  bodies,  and  God's  own  Word 
with  reference  to  beauty  as  well  as  use,  and  into  whose 
temple  there  is  a  Gate  Beautiful,  no  less  than  approaches 
through  truth  and  emotion. 

Another  note  of  this  present  age  is  its  socialism,  using 
that  term  in  its  broadest  sense,  in  antithesis  to  individual- 
ism. Our  widened  outlook  upon  the  past,  and  our  deep- 
ened sense  of  the  social  forces  which  have  shaped  the 
present  out  of  it,  have  weakened  faith  in  the  capacity  of 
the  individual  to  deal  satisfactorily  with  all  questions. 
This  feeling  has  combined  with  the  reformatory  and  phil- 
anthropic energy  transmitted  from  the  previous  period, 
and  with  the  new  scientific  stress  upon  environment  as 
molding  the  life  of  individual  and  species,  to  give  a  social- 
ist character  to  our  thought  and  the  methods  which  it  orig- 
inates. And  this  has  been  stimulated  by  reaction  against 
the  more  than  Puritan  individualism  of  the  English  political 
economists,  until  we  run  the  risk  of  sacrificing  the  precious 
fruits  of  liberty  in  the  pursuit  of  collectivist  ideals. 

In  this  new  age  the  Presbyterian  Church  still  holds  a 
central  position  in  the  religious  life  of  the  nation.  She  is 
a  historic  church,  prizing  her  own  past,  and  reverencing 
the  great  historic  names  in  her  annals,  without  refusing 
that  reverence  to  names  as  great,  whose  work  was  done 
outside  her  communion.  As  a  conservative  church  she 
has  helped  to  counteract  the  sudden  breaks  with  history 
which  each  new  tendency  has  threatened  to  accomplish. 
She  moderated  the  extravagance  of  Puritanism  by  holding 
fast  to  elements  of  earlier  date  and  historic  value.  She 
modified  the  urgency  of  the  Awakening,  when  it  would 
cast  aside  the   heritage  Puritanism   had  bequeathed,  and 


304  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

would  have  disparaged  every  doctrine  and  institution  which 
could  not  be  proved  directly  useful  for  the  conversion  of 
sinners.  So  in  our  own  time  she  has  to  modify  and  re- 
strain the  tendency  which  would  put  church  and  sacrament 
and  historic  tradition  not  only  beside,  but  above,  or  in 
place  of.  Christian  truth  and  feeling.  She  has  to  oppose 
those  who  in  the  name  of  the  historic  would  turn  their 
backs  on  all  history  but  what  suits  their  own  tastes  and 
likings,  would  cry  down  the  Reformers  and  their  work, 
treat  Puritanism  as  an  apostasy  and  the  Awakening  as 
an  aberration,  and  find  nothing  to  their  liking  that  is  not 
medieval  or  Romanist.  There  are  those  who  cannot  love 
the  Bernards  and  the  Gregories  without  hating  Luther  and 
Knox,  or  who  think  that  theological  development  came  to 
an  end  with  the  seventh  ecumenical  council.  But  "  God 
wastes  no  history,"  as  Phillips  Brooks  has  well  said.  He 
no  more  ceased  to  guide  his  church  when  the  middle  ages 
ended  than  when  they  began.  To  doubt  this,  and  to  seek 
the  connecting-link  with  that  age  in  Laud  and  a  handful 
of  High-church  Anglicans,  is  an  exact  parallel  to  the  Wal- 
densian  theory  as  to  the  medieval  period.  He  knows  not 
the  history  of  the  church  who  does  not  recognize  the 
spiritual  necessity  for  the  change  which  sundered  the 
Teutonic  from  the  Romance  church  in  the  sixteenth  cent- 
ury, or  the  Latin  Church  from  the  Greek  in  the  eleventh  ; 
who  does  not  recognize  the  sobriety  and  conservatism 
with  which  it  was  effected,  and  does  not  find  in  its  leaders 
the  equals  at  least  of  any  men  God  has  given  his  church 
since  Athanasius  and  Augustine. 

Equally  necessary  is  a  moderating  and  conservative  in- 
fluence in  the  case  of  another  tendency  of  our  age.  As 
every  extreme  carries  in  it  the  causes  of  an  equal  reaction, 
so  the  extremes  of  individualism  are  producing  the  ex- 
tremes of  socialism.      Personal  responsibility  for  poverty. 


so  CIA  LIS  T  EX  A  G  GERA  7 10.\  ^S. 


305. 


wretchedness,  and  even  vice  is  boldly  questioned  in  these 
days.  Society,  and  especially  the  church,  is  held  to  answer 
for  the  whole  burden  of  human  misery,  which  is  put  into 
such  light  as  to  fill  the  entire  sky  of  social  vision  from 
horizon  to  horizon.  All  the  problems  of  society  are  laid 
at  the  feet  of  the  church,  and  she  is  required  to  turn  aside 
from  the  ministry  of  the  Word  to  serve  the  tables,  at 
which  the  whole  mass  of  the  hungry  and  the  thriftless  are 
to  be  fed.  In  the  past  the  conversion  of  sinners  was  made 
too  exclusively  the  church's  work.  She  is  now  to  give  it 
over,  to  turn  to  the  conversion  of  millionaires  into  social- 
ist philanthropists.  She  was  too  often  characterized  by 
an  other-worldliness,  wliich  gave  up  the  life  of  this  time 
for  a  better  life  in  the  hereafter.  She  is  now  to  drop  the 
question  of  a  hereafter,  and  to  devote  herself  to  improv- 
ing the  physical  no  less  than  the  moral  well-being  of  the 
human  mass,  taken  in  the  mass. 

There  is  both  truth  and  justice  in  these  charges  and 
these  demands,  but  there  also  is  mischievous  exaggeration. 
To  oppose  it  we  need  a  revival  of  the  Puritan  sense  of 
personal  responsibility  and  the  Methodist  sense  of  the 
adequacy  of  God's  grace  to  reach  and  reform  men  in  any 
surroundings.  We  need  to  rid  our  minds  of  the  worship 
of  environment  and  heredity  which  materialistic  science 
has  been  teaching  us,  and  to  worship  the  living  God,  who 
says,  '*  All  souls  are  mine :  .  .  .  the  soul  that  sinneth,  it 
shall  die."  He  is  the  greatest  fact  in  the  environment  of 
any  human  spirit,  and  his  quickening  power  is  more  than 
all  the  forces  of  heredity. 

The  Presbyterian  Church,  as  heir  to  theocratic  principle 
which  was  distinctive  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  its  most 
illustrious  era,  has  never  sunk  to  mere  pietistic  individual- 
ism. She  always  has  recognized  her  social  responsibilities, 
and  has  spoken  her  mind  on  all  social  problems.     She  is 


306  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

therefore  less  liable  than  the  Puritan  and  Methodist  bodies 
to  these  violent  reactions,  while  she  responds  to  the  new 
impulse  to  deal  with  spiritual  problems  on  their  social  no 
less  than  their  individual  side.  The  man  of  to-day  is  not 
to  be  contented  with  the  Methodist  teaching  of  yesterday. 
He  longs  for  a  new  order  of  life  more  even  than  for  the 
good  of  his  own  soul.  He  so  longs  because  God  is  quick- 
ening in  him  desires  for  that  social  order  which  our  Lord 
called  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  he  still  needs  to  have 
the  old  truth  pressed  upon  him,  that  he  cannot  enter  the 
kingdom  until  he  is  born  from  above  and  puts  on  the 
childlike  nature  of  the  newly  born. 

The  last  note  of  the  present  age  is  the  yearning  for 
Christian  union  which  is  awakening  in  the  severed  parts 
of  Christ's  church.  The  desire  of  a  universal  brother- 
hood of  men  simply  as  such,  from  which  no  man  shall  be 
excluded  except  he  will  to  be,  finds  expression  in  many 
shapes,  some  of  them  fantastic  enough.  The  church  was 
founded  to  satisfy  that  yearning.  The  closer  we  get  to 
its  Founder,  and  the  more  we  study  its  history,  the  less 
content  we  are  with  a  Christendom  broken  into  fragments 
by  strife  over  secondary  matters,  and  the  more  painful  be- 
comes the  contrast  between  Christ's  ideal  and  its  imperfect 
X  realization. 

Here,  I  fear,  it  would  be  hard  to  assert  any  peculiar 
merit  for  the  Presbyterian  bodies.  Up  to  the  Revolution 
settlement  of  1690,  indeed,  the  Kirk  kept  its  unity  un- 
broken. The  custom  was  for  those  who  regarded  any- 
thing in  its  practice  as  wrong  and  burdensome  to  their 
consciences  to  "  declare  their  separation  from  "  that  thing, 
without  breaking  the  unity  of  the  church.  Thus  the  sharp 
dissensions  between  the  Engagers  and  the  Resolutioners 
in  1649-50  were  got  over  without  any  breach  of  com- 
munion. 


THE  BEGINNINGS   OE  SCHISM,  307 

At  the  Revolution  all  the  ministers  who  had  preached 
in  the  fields,  in  defiance  of  Stuart  persecution,  and  had 
escaped  the  scaffold  for  this  faithfulness,  united  with  the 
Scottish  church  as  reestablished,  claiming  that  Cargill, 
Cameron,  Renwick,  and  the  rest  of  the  martyrs  had  de- 
clared against  any  separation  **  if  the  Lord  should  send 
deliverance  to  his  church,  and  give  them  access  to  present 
their  grievances  to  its  judicatories  with  personal  safety."^ 
That  is,  however  much  they  might  dissent  from  the  action 
taken  on  their  grievances,  they  would  no  more  than  declare 
their  dissent,  without  leaving  the  church.  Unhappily  this 
view  did  not  commend  itself  to  a  part  of  the  elders  and 
members  who  had  waited  upon  the  ministry  of  the  perse- 
cuted preachers  and  had  shared  in  the  perils  of  the  killing- 
time.  Because  the  Revolution  settlement  provided  for  no 
acknowledgment  of  the  lasting  obligation  of  the  Covenants, 
they  would  have  none  of  it;  and  through  the  accession 
of  ministers  who  took  the  same  view,  they,  after  a  long 
wait,  in  i  743  were  able  to  organize  themselves  as  a  Cove- 
nanter Church.  The  same  course  was  taken  by  the  Er- 
skines  and  their  friends  in  withdrawing  from  the  Kirk  in 
1733  \  by  Gillespie  and  his  friends  in  withdrawing  to  form 
the  Relief  Church  in  1752;  and  by  the  majority  in  the 
American  Synod,  in  1741,  in  casting  out  the  Tennents 
and  their  friends.  Then  came  divisions  within  divisions, 
the  Covenanters  in  Scotland  dividing,  in  1751,  as  to  the 
soundness  of  a  treatise  by  Mr.  Frazer,  of  Brea,  one  of  the 
persecuted  preachers,  in  which  he  taught  that  Christ  died 
for  all  men;  and  the  Seceders,  in  1747,  on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Burgher  oath.  Thus  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
through  neglect  of  her  established  principle  of  ecclesiasti- 

1  See  "  An  Inquiry  into  Church-Communion  ;  or,  A  Treatise  Against  Sep- 
aration from  the  Revolution  Settlement  of  this  National  Church,  as  it  wfks 
Settled  Anno  1689  and  l6qo."  P.y  Mr.  Alexander  Shields,  Minister  of  the 
Gospel  at  St.  Andrews.     Edinburgh,  1706;  2d  ed.,  1747. 


308  *  THE  rRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

cal  communion  and  dissent,  was  launched  on  a  career  of 
division  and  schism  which  has  been  the  scandal  of  the 
Presbyterian  name. 

In  America  we  have  had,  first  and  last,  twenty-eight 
Presbyterian  bodies,  most  of  them  extended  over  the 
national  field,  and  many  of  them  claiming  to  be  the  only 
true  representatives  of  Presbyterian  principles.  Of  these 
ten  are  still  in  existence,  unless,  indeed,  the  eleventh  still 
perpetuates  its  organization  after  the  death  of  its  last 
minister.  If  we  except  the  two  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
churches  the  differences  between  the  other  eight  are  sim- 
ply infinitesimal  when  compared  with  their  agreements  in 
doctrine,  polity,  and  character.  Should  they  plant  them- 
selves on  the  ground  occupied  by  the  church  in  its  most 
heroic  period  they  could  find  room  for  all  within  one  fold, 
with  freedom  for  each  to  "declare  its  separation"  from 
what  it  regards  as  the  shortcomings  of  the  whole  body. 
And  as  regards  even  the  Cumberland  churches,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  if  this  reunited  church  were  to  de- 
clare its  Calvinistic  faith  in  its  own  words,  there  would  be 
less  difficulty  in  a  reunion  with  them  than  is  supposed. 
E\'en  that  difficulty  would  not  be  in  the  way  of  a  union 
with  the  two  Reformed  churches,  and  this  might  be  ef- 
fected without  requiring  them  to  give  up  their  older  and 
more  historic  name.  But  to  effect  all  this  the  church 
needs  more  of  the  Spirit  of  wisdom,  unity,  and  a  sound 
mind  than  she  yet  possesses.  It  seems,  indeed,  as  though 
through  her  very  divisions  God  were  holding  her  back 
from  the  temptations  which  come  with  increase  of  num- 
bers and  of  strength  until  she  is  fitted  to  bear  them. 

This  is  still  more  true  of  the  outlook  for  Christian  unity, 
of  which  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  unity  is  but  a  lesser 
branch.  It  would  bring  great  perils  to  the  nation  if  all 
our  Protestant  churches  were  to  be  united  into  a  single 


THE   PERILS  AND    THE   HOPE   OF   UNION.  309 

effectively  organized  church,  without  their  rising  to  a 
higher  plane  of  practical  wisdom  and  true  spirituality  than 
they  have  yet  reached  separately.  The  hasty  and  drastic 
fashion  in  which  many  of  them  have  undertaken  to  deal 
with  social  problems,  their  assumption  to  decide  not  only 
the  ends  of  moral  reform,  but  the  political  means  by  which 
these  are  to  be  reached,  are  foreshadowings  of  these  perils. 
The  sad  chapters  in  the  earlier  history  of  the  established 
churches  of  Europe  and  America,  before  Protestant  dis- 
sent and  division  curbed  their  strength,  show  that  human 
nature  works  in  much  the  same  fashion  in  Protestant  as  in 
Romanist  ecclesiastics,  with  the  exception  that  a  married 
clergy  is  less  likely  to  devise  fantastic  and  excessive  sever- 
ities than  is  a  celibate.  We  therefore  seem  to  be  wisely 
compelled  to  wait  for  Christian  union  until  we  are  fit  to 
use  it  without  abusing  it. 

Yet  to  wait  is  not  to  despair  of  it,  or  to  give  up  yearn- 
ing for  it,  or  even  to  abandon  the  assurance  that  it  is  com- 
ing at  no  distant  date.  Our  ecclesiastical  Hfe  as  a  people 
is  still  in  the  colonial  stage.  It  hardly  has  felt  the  touch 
of  the  great  nationalizing  instinct  which  played  so  great  a 
part  in  the  crises  of  our  political  history  in  1775,  in  1787, 
in  1832,  and  in  1861-65.  ^^  have  inherited  from  Europe 
a  state  of  ecclesiastical  division  not  unlike  nor  unrelated 
to  the  divisions  which  kept  colony  apart  from  colony  in 
the  age  of  colonial  dependence.  In  those  earlier  decades 
of  American  history  it  seemed  as  though  the  differences  of 
race,  of  creed,  and  of  social  ideal  would  keep  the  colonies 
apart  forever — at  least  it  seemed  impossible  to  bring 
them  together  in  less  than  three  confederacies,  the  South- 
ern and  the  New  England  States  standing  apart  from  the 
others.  But  the  good  providence  cf  God  was  building  up 
a  nation  out  of  these  alien  elemer.ts  long  before  the  work- 
ing of  his  hand  appeared  on  the  surface  of  things.      By 


3IO  THE  PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

community  of  peril  and  of  toil,  by  the  friendly  interchanges 
of  commerce,  by  the  spreading  enthusiasms  of  the  Great 
Awakening,  by  the  common  interest  in  men  of  national 
magnitude,  Hke  Franklin  and  Washington,  by  the  foolish 
and  ill-timed  exactions  of  the  British  government,  and  by 
the  manifest  perils  to  religious  liberty  which  attended  the 
connection  with  England,  the  colonies  were  drawn  out  of 
their  isolation,  and  began  to  be.  conscious  of  being  Ameri- 
can. When  independence  was  achieved  under  an  imper- 
fect form  of  union,  then  commercial  distress,  industrial 
decay,  popular  turbulence,  and  bitter  disputes  between  the 
States  forced  on  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  The 
crisis  of  Nullification  brought  the  national  sentiment  into 
more  lively  activity,  under  the  very  rule  of  a  party  least 
disposed  to  cherish  it.  That  of  Secession  finally  settled 
the  question  of  the  permanence  of  the  Union,  by  discover- 
ing to  the  American  people,  both  North  and  South,  how 
precious  it  had  become  to  them. 

All  this  has  taken  place  in  a  sphere  where  nt>  larger 
union  is  sought  than  that  of  a  single  people  within  their 
national  boundaries.  But  in  the  sphere  where  the  union  of 
all  men  into  one  human  brotherhood  under  the  headship 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  goal,  we  have  accomplished  as  good 
as  nothing  as  yet.     We  are  not  even  national. 

Here  we  have  to  move  between  two  extremes.  The 
first  offers  us  unity  in  the  footing  of  an  abandonment  of 
the  past,  and  a  reconstruction  of  the  church  out  of  New 
Testament  texts,  in  the  spirit  of  Puritan  literalism.  We 
have  had  more  than  one  attempt  of  this  kind,  the  most 
notable  being  the  body  called  the  Disciples,  whose  found- 
ers, Isaac  and  Alexander  Campbell,  came  to  America 
from  the  Associate  Presbyterian  Church  of  Ireland,  and 
first  joined  the  Baptists  before  reaching  the  conclusions 
on  which  they  based  their  new  organization.     In  this  view 


UNHISTORIC    UNIONISM.  3  i  I 

the  history  of  the  church  since  the  days  of  the  apostles 
has  been  Httle  more  than  a  series  of  sins  and  blunders,  of 
which  the  less  said  or  remembered  the  better.  They 
frankly  apply  to  the  history  of  the  Protestant  churches 
the  judgments  which  many  Protestants  still  apply  to  the 
middle  ages :  they  admit  the  relief  of  the  ecclesiastical 
darkness  by  some  shining  names,  but  assert  that  the  w^hole 
story  is  a  tissue  of  mere  usurpation  and  wrong-doing — 
creeds,  polity,  methods  of  work,  all  being  out  of  the  line 
of  what  the  New  Testament  forbids  and  requires. 

Such  a  theory  of  the  church  could  have  originated  only 
in  a  period  when  historic  studies  were  but  little  cultivated, 
and  the  popular  interest  in  the' church's  history  as  good 
as  absent.  It  was  associated,  however,  with  a  disposition 
to  reject  the  subjectivity  of  the  Awakening,  and  to  assert 
for  Christianity  a  strongly  objective  character;  and  this 
commended  it  to  many.  The  history  of  the  body  shows 
that  the  plan  does  not  solve  the  problem.  Divisions  and 
disputes  have  arisen  within  it,  which  have  rent  the  bond 
of  charity,  because  this  New  Testament  literalism  does  not 
remove  all  grounds  of  difference  in  judgment. ^  Nor  is  the 
church  called  upon  to  sacrifice  her  whole  history  to  regain 
her  unity.  These  ages  have  not  been  lost,  whatever  their 
mistakes. 

The   other   extreme   is   that  which   proposes   Christian 

1  The  Disciples  may  be  said  to  be  the  American  representatives  of  the 
Haklane  movement  in  Scotland,  by  which  the  younger  Campbell  was  greatly 
influenced  during  his  attendance  at  Glasgow  University.  In  the  Ahorey 
Presbyterian  congregation,  where  I  spent  a  part  of  my  boyhood,  Isaac  Camp- 
bell was  still  remembered  for  the  strictness  of  the  Seceder  discipline  he  ex- 
ercised when  its  pastor.  Professor  Whitsett,  of  the  Southern  Baptists,  traces 
the  origin  of  Mormonism  as  a  working-system  to  the  literalism  of  the  Dis- 
ciples. Orson  Pratt  was  a  preacher  among  the  Disciples,  and  became  the 
theologian  of  the  Latter-day  Saints.  And  the  claim  of  the  Saints  is  that 
they  alone  offer  a  church  which  literally  corresponds  throughout  to  that  of 
the  New  Testament,  being  persecuted  by  the  Gentiles,  speaking  with  tongues, 
working  miracles,  laying  on  hands  for  the  bestowal  of  the  Spirit,  anointing 
the  sick,  etc. 


312  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

union  on  the  historical  basis  presented  by  a  single  church, 
which  claims  to  possess  the  only  true  church  order  or  doc- 
trine, or  both.  This  is  a  form  of  ecclesiastical  assumption 
confined  to  no  particular  church.  All  have  made  this  claim 
at  times,  especially  in  the  days  of  their  early  progress, 
when  they  thought  themselves  Aaron's  rod,  predestined 
to  swallow  up  the  others.  The  Friends,  the  Methodists, 
the  Baptists,  the  Lutherans,  the  Presbyterians — all  have 
had  their  jure  diviiio  claims  at  times,  when  they  were 
ready  to  unchurch  everybody  else.  At  present  it  is  the 
Church  of  Rome  and  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
which  maintain  exclusive  claims  in  America.  The  latter 
did  not  assume  this  attitude  in  the  era  of  Bishop  White, 
when  it  put  itself  more  on  a  level  with  the  other  churches 
by  speaking  of  "  other  denominations."  But  all  the  changes 
in  the  legislation  of  the  last  half-century  look  in  this  direc- 
tion and  grow  out  of  the  dominant  spirit  of  the  church. 
It  is  now  distinctly  High-church  of  the  Oxford  pattern. 
Nor  is  this  position  abandoned  at  all  in  the  action  of  the 
House  of  Bishops  which  looks  toward  Christian  union. 
The  notable  feature  of  that  action  was  that  it  was  ad- 
dressed to  other  bodies  of  American  Christians,  and  not 
simply  to  the  indixiduals  w^ho  compose  them.  It  thus 
marks  a  great  advance  in  Christian  courtesy  upon  the 
style  in  which  the  High-church  claim  has  been  pressed  in 
most  cases.  But  it  still  assumes  that  the  elements  of 
Christian  reunion  are  to  be  sought  entirely  in  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  while  it  minimizes  as  far  as  possible  the 
number  of  the  prerequisites.  It  asks  of  no  other  church 
for  any  contribution  to  the  problem,  while  it  proposes  to 
open  negotiations  with  any  upon  the  basis  it  has  laid  down 
itself.  On  this  basis  Protestants  may  be  reunited  by  be- 
coming Episcopalians  to  an  extent  there  defined,  while  the 
Episcopal  Church  accepts  and  learns  nothing  from  them. 


V    TRIXITARIAX   CIIUF^CH.  313 

Here  again  there  is  need  of  a  central  and  moderating 
influence  between  opposed  extremes,  which  the  Presby- 
terian Church  might  very  well  exercise.  She  has  more 
affinity  with  all  the  div-erse  elements  of  our  ecclesiastical 
life  than  has  any  other  church.  She  has  been  a  Puritan 
church  in  the  Puritan  age,  and  a  Methodist  church  in  the 
age  of  the  Awakening;  and  she  is  returning  to  what  she 
was  before  the  Puritan  influence  touched  her,  in  adapting 
herself  to  the  churchly  tendencies  of  the  present- age.  It 
would  not  be  to  the  exclusion  of  any  of  these  principles 
that  she  would  ofl"er  herself  as  a  mediator  between  them 
all ;  nor  need  Christian  union  be  achieved  by  leaving  be- 
hind the  attainments  of  any  in  the  past,  and  all  becoming 
Presbyterians.  Such  a  reunion,  indeed,  would  bring  all  the 
elements  of  our  rich  and  varied  spiritual  life  into  harmony 
and  cooperation,  giving  us  a  church  practically  Trinitarian 
and  at  the  same  time  more  complex  than  is  the  life  of  any 
existing  body. 

In  his  address  at  the  celebration  of  his  semi-centenary 
Dr.  Charles  Hodge  pointed  to  the  clew  furnished  by  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  to  the  variety  of  spiritual  life  in  the 
churches  of  Christ :  "  There  are  different  types  of  religion 
even  among  true  believers.  The  religion  of  St.  Bernard 
and  of  John  Wesley,  of  Jeremy  Taylor  and  of  Jonathan 
Edwards,  although  essentially  the  same,  had  in  each  case 
its  peculiar  character.  Every  great  historic  church  has 
its  own  type  of  piety.  As  there  are  three  Persons  in  the 
Trinity,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  there 
appear  to  be  three  general  forms  of  religion  among  evan- 
gelical Christians.  There  are  some  whose  religious  experi- 
ence is  determined  mainly  by  what  is  taught  in  the  Script- 
ures concerning  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  dwell  upon  his 
inward  work  on  the  heart,  on  his  indwelling,  his  illumina- 
tion, on  his  life-giving  power;  they  yield  themselves  pas- 


314  THE   PRESBVrERIANS.    ^,  [CnJfp.  xxi. 

sively  to  his  influence  to  exalt  them  into  fellowship  with 
God.  Such  men  are  disposed  more  or  less  to  mysticism. 
There  are  others  whose  religious  life  is  determined  more 
by  their  relation  to  the  Father,  to  God  as  God  ;  who  look 
upon  him  as  a  sovereign  or  lawgiver;  who  dwell  upon  the 
grounds  of  obligation,  upon  responsibility  and  ability,  and 
upon  the  subjective  change  by  which  the  sinner  passes  from 
a  state  of  rebellion  to  that  of  obedience.  Then  there  are 
those  in  whom  the  form  of  religion,  as  Dr.  Boardman  has 
said,  is  distinctly  Christological.  I  see  around  me  alumni 
whose  heads  are  gray  as  my  own.  They  will  unite  wuth 
me  in  testifying  that  this  is  the  form  of  religion  in  which 
we  were  trained.  While  our  teachers  did  not  dissuade  us 
from  looking  within  and  searching  for  evidences  of  the 
Spirit's  work  in  the  heart,  they  constantly  directed  us  to 
look  only  unto  Jesus — Jehovah-Jesus — him  in  whom  are 
united  all  that  is  infinite  and  awful,  indicated  by  the  name 
of  Jehovah ;  and  all  that  is  human  and  tender  and  sympa- 
thetic, forbearing  and  loving,  implied  in  the  name  Jesus. 
If  any  student  went  to  Dr.  Alexander  in  a  state  of  de- 
spondence the  venerable  man  was  sure  to  tell  him,  *  Look 
not  so  much  within.  Look  to  Christ.  Dwell  on  his  per- 
son, on  his  work,  on  his  promises,  and  devote  yourself  to 
his  service,  and  you  will  soon  find  peace.'  " 

This  remarkable  passage  might  be  alleged  in  refutation 
of  Dr.  Hodge's  famous  statement  in  the  same  address :  "  I 
am  not  afraid  to  say  that  a  new  idea  ne\er  originated  in 
this  seminary."  It  coincides  in  the  main  with  the  results 
reached  by  the  present  writer  in  thirty  years'  study  of  the 
religious  life  and  history  of  America.  The  point  at  which 
the  coincidence  is  not  perfect  will  be  indicated. 

Our  ecclesiastical  life  looks  like  a  chaos  of  mere  dissen- 
sion and  unreasonable  divisions,  but  it  is  not  so.  Under 
the  seeming  chaos  lies  an  unseen  order,  with  the  promise 


THE    THREE    TYPES.  315 

of  its  ultimate  visibility.  The  great  American  churches 
are  Trinitarian  in  theory — they  recognize  in  the  God- 
head an  essential  unity,  and  yet  a  threefoldness  of  life  so 
distinct  that  the  Son  speaks  to  the  Father  as  "  thou  "  and 
of  the  Spirit  as  '*  he  " — but  in  their  actual  life  they  tend 
to  be,  in  some  sense.  Unitarians,  singling  out  some  one 
of  the  three  as  the  object  of  trust  and  confidence. 

Some,  as  Dr.  Hodge  says,  have  their  thoughts  centered 
upon  the  Father,  the  fons  deitatis,  "  God  as  God,"  as  the 
sovereign  will  which  puts  forth  energy  in  creation,  provi- 
dence, redemption,  and  judgment.  Here  the  Puritan,  Cal- 
vinistic,  and  Reformed  churches  naturally  belong.  They 
regard  the  work  of  Christ  mainly  as  putting  an  obstacle 
out  of  the  way  of  the  Father's  will.  In  that  will  every- 
thing is  embraced.  This  type  of  thought  dominates  the 
Westminster  standards  and  all  the  Reformed  confessions. 
Dr.  Hodge  evidently  finds  its  truest  representatives  among 
the  theologians  of  New  England.  But  whatever  modifica- 
tions of  it  might  come  of  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander's  type 
of  piety,  and  his  own  contact  with  the  mediation  school 
during  his  stay  in  Germany,  this  in  the  long  run  is  that  of 
Presbyterian  theology. 

The  second  type  in  the  historic  order  we  find  in  Amer- 
ica is  that  of  the  worship  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  the  Method- 
ist era  succeeds  the  Puritan.  Here  feeling  counts  for  more 
than  doctrine,  and  the  inner  life  is  accounted  the  greatest 
of  all  interests.  Here  stand  our  Methodists,  Moravians, 
Friends,  and  other  pietistic  or  mystical  sects. 

The  third  type  is  Christocentric.  It  regards  the  Incar- 
nation as  the  world's  redemption,  and  lays  its  stress  not 
on  the  work  of  Christ  to  reconcile  the  Father  to  man,  but 
on  his  very  person,  in  which  our  humanity  is  lifted  into 
fellowship  with  God.  Its  stress  falls  on  the  social  rather 
than  the  intellectual  and  the  emotional  life,  and  on  the 


3l6  THE   PRESBYTERIANS.  [Chap.  xx(. 

sacraments  around  which  that  social  Hfe  centers.  The 
most  perfect  type  of  this  is  the  Cathohc  and  Apostohc 
Church,  which  was  organized  chiefly  out  of  English  and 
Scotch  Presbyterians,  and  is  now  represented  at  some  seven 
or  eight  centers  in  America.  Next  to  it  comes  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  Church,  especially  since  it  has  been  perme- 
ated by  the  spirit  of  the  Oxford  revival. 

And  these  three  are  one.  Each  tendency  in  its  turn  has 
been  dominant  for  a  time  in  the  religious  life  of  America. 
Shall  not  the  next  age  be  that  of  their  unity  in  the  mani- 
fold life  of  a  national  (and  ecumenical)  Trinitarian  church, 
in  which,  as  in  our  federal  system  of  government,  there 
shall  be  room  for  the  largest  variety  of  type  in  connection 
with  an  essential  unity  ?  To  such  a  result  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  can  contribute  at  least  as  largely  as  any  in  the 
land,  through  its  friendly  relations  with  all,  through  its 
hospitality  in  the  past  and  the  present  to  all  these  forms 
of  the  spiritual  life. 

At  any  rate,  the  last  word  on  the  subject  is  one  of  hope 
and  of  outlook.  In  the  seeming  welter  of  sects  and 
parties,  the  hand  of  God  is  at  work.  Out  of  it,  he  will 
show  forth  his  glory. 


APPENDIX  OF  THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  DOCU- 
MENTS  ILLUSTRATIVE   OF  THE   HISTORY 
OF  THE   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH   IN 
AMERICA. 


I.    THE    SCOTTISH    NATIONAL    COVENANT    OF    1 58 1, 
RENEWED    IN    1 638. 

Wee  all  and  every  one  of  us  underwritten,  Protest, 
That,  after  long  and  due  examination  of  our  owne  Con- 
sciences in  matters  of  true  and  false  Religion,  [we]  are  now 
thoroughly  resolved  of  the  Truth,  by  the  Word  and  Spirit 
of  God,  and,  therefore,  we  beleeve  with  our  hearts,  con- 
fesse  with  our  mouths,  subscribe  with  our  hands,  and  con- 
stantly affirm,  before  God  and  the  whole  World,  that  this 
only  is  the  true  Christian  Faith  and  Religion,  pleasing 
God,  and  bringing  Salvation  to  man,  which  now  is,  by  the 
mercy  of  God,  revealed  to  the  world  by  the  preaching  of 
the  blessed  Evangel. 

And  received,  beleeved,  and  defended  by  many  and 
sundry  notable  Kirks  and  Realmes,  but  chiefly  by  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland,  the  King's  Majestic,  and  by  three 
Estates  of  this  Realme,  as  God's  eternall  Truth,  and  onely 
ground  of  our  salvation;  as  more  particularly  is  expressed 
In  the  Confession  of  our  Faith,  stablished  and  publikely 
confirmed  by  sundry  Acts  of  Parlaments,  and  now,  of  a 
long  time,  hath  been  openly  professed  by  the  King's 
Majestic,  and  whole  body  of  this  Realme,  both  in  Burgh 
and  Land.  To  the  which  Confession  and  forme  of  Re- 
ligion wee  willingly  agree  in  our  consciences  in  all  points, 

317 


3  1 8  APPENDIX. 

as  unto  God's  undoubted  Truth  and  Verity,  grounded 
onely  upon  his  written  Word.  And,  therefore,  We  ab- 
horre  and  detest  all  contrarie  Religion  and  Doctrine ;  but 
chiefly  all  kinde  of  Papistrie  in  generall  and  particular 
heads,  even  as  they  are  now  damned  and  confuted  by  the 
Word  of  God  and  Kirk  of  Scotland ;  but,  in  speciall,  we 
detest  and  refuse  the  usurped  authoritie  of  that  Roman 
Antichrist  upon  the  Scriptures  of  God,  upon  the  Kirk,  the 
civill  Magistrate,  and  Consciences  of  men ;  all  his  tyran- 
nous lawes  made  upon  indiflferent  things  against  our  Chris- 
tian libertie  ;  his  erroneous  Doctrine  against  the  sufficiencie 
of  the  written  Word,  the  perfection  of  the  Law,  the  office 
of  Christ  and  his  blessed  Evangel ;  his  corrupted  Doctrine 
concerning  originall  sinne,  our  natural  inabilitie  and  rebel- 
lion to  God's  law,  our  justification  by  faith  onely,  our  im- 
perfect sanctification  and  obedience  to  the  law,  the  nature, 
number,  and  use  of  the  holy  Sacraments;  his  five  bastard 
Sacraments,  with  all  his  Rites,  Ceremonies,  and  false  Doc- 
trine, added  to  the  ministration  of  the  true  Sacraments 
without  the  Word  of  God  ;  his  cruell  judgement  against  In- 
fants departing  without  the  sacrament;  his  absolute  neces- 
sitie  of  Baptisme  ;  his  blasphemous  opinion  of  Transubstan- 
tiation,  or  real  presence  of  Christ's  body  in  the  Elements, 
and  receiving  of  the  same  by  the  wicked,  or  bodies  of 
men;  his  dispensations  with  solemn  oaths,  perjuries,  and 
degrees  of  Marriage  forbidden  in  the  Word ;  his  crueltie 
against  the  innocent  divorced ;  his  divellish  Masse ;  his 
blasphemous  Priesthood ;  his  profane  Sacrifice  for  the  sins 
of  the  dead  and  the  quick  ;  his  Canonization  of  men,  calHng 
upon  Angels  or  Saints  departed,  worshipping  of  Imagerie, 
Relicks,  and  Crosses,  dedicating  of  Kirks,  Altars,  Dales, 
Vowes  to  creatures ;  his  Purgatorie,  praiers  for  the  dead ; 
praying  or  speaking  in  a  strange  language,  w4th  his  Proces- 
sions, and  blasphemous  Letanie,  and  multitude  of  Advo- 
cates or  Mediators  ;  his  manifold  Orders,  Auricular  Confes- 
sion ;  his  desperate  and  uncertaine  repentence  ;  his  generall 
and  doubtsome  faith ;  his  satisfactions  of  men  for  their 
sins;  his  justification  by  works,  opiLS  ope^-atum^  works  of 


THE  NATIONAL    COVENANT,  319 

supererogation,  Merits,  Pardons,  Peregrinations,  and  Sta- 
tions ;  his  holy  Water,  baptizing  of  Bels,  conjuring  of  spirits, 
crossing,  saning,  anointing,  conjuring,  hallowing  of  God's 
good  creatures,  with  the  superstitious  opinion  joyned  there- 
with ;  his  worldly  Monarchy,  and  wicked  Hierarchic ;  his 
three  solemne  vowes,  with  all  his  shavelings  of  sundry  sorts  ; 
his  erroneous  and  bloudie  decrees  made  at  Trent,  with  all 
the  subscribers  and  approvers  of  that  cruell  and  bloudie 
Band  conjured  against  the  Kirk  of  God ;  and,  finally,  we 
detest  all  his  vain  Allegories,  Rites,  Signs,  and  Traditions 
brought  in  the  Kirk,  without  or  against  the  Word  of  God, 
and  Doctrine  of  this  true  reformed  Kirk ;  to  the  which  we 
joyne  ourselves  willingly,  in  Doctrine,  Faith,  Religion,  Dis- 
cipline, and  use  of  the  Holy  Sacraments,  as  lively  members 
of  the  same  in  Christ  our  Head ;  promising  and  swearing, 
by  the  GREAT  NAME  OF  THE  LORD  OUR  GOD,  that  we 
shall  continue  in  the  obedience  of  the  Doctrine  and  Disci- 
pline of  this  Kirk,  and  shall  defend  the  same,  according  to 
our  vocation  and  power,  all  the  dayes  of  our  liv-es,  under 
the  paines  contained  in  the  Law%  and  danger  both  of  body 
and  soule  in  the  day  of  God's  fearfuU  Judgement ;  and  see- 
ing that  many  are  stirred  up  by  Satan  and  that  Romane 
Antichrist,  to  promise,  sweare,  subscribe,  and,  for  a  time, 
use  the  Holy  Sacraments  in  the  Kirk  deceitfully,  against 
their  owne  consciences,  minding  thereby,  first,  under  the 
externall  cloake  of  Religion,  to  corrupt  and  subvert  secretly 
God's  true  Religion  within  the  Kirk,  and  afterward,  when 
time  may  serve,  to  become  open  enemies  and  persecutors 
of  the  same,  under  vaine  hope  of  the  Pope's  dispensation, 
devised  against  the  Word  of  God,  to  his  greater  confusion, 
and  their  double  condemnation  in  the  day  of  the  LORD 
JESUS. 

We,  therefore,  willing  to  take  away  all  suspition  of 
hypocrisie,  and  of  such  double  dealing  with  God  and  his 
Kirk,  Protest,  and  call  The  Searcher  of  all  Hearts  for  wit- 
nesse,  that  our  minds  and  hearts  do  fully  agree  with  this 
our  Confession,  Promise,  Oath,  and  Subscription,  so  that  we 
are  not  moved  for  any  worldly  respect,  but  are  perswaded 


320 


APPENDIX. 


onely  in  our  Consciences,  through  the  knowledge  and  love 
of  God's  true  Religion,  printed  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  we  shall  answer  to  Him  in  the  day  when  the 
secrets  of  all  hearts  shall  be  disclosed ;  and  because  we 
perceive,  that  the  quietnesse  and  stability  of  our  Religion 
and  Kirk  doth  depend  upon  the  safety  and  good  behaviour 
of  the  King's  Majestic,  as  upon  a  comfortable  instrument 
of  God's  mercy  granted  to  this  Country,  for  the  maintain- 
ing of  his  Kirk,  and  ministration  of  Justice  amongst  us ; 
we  protest  and  promise  with  our  hearts,  under  the  same 
Oath,  Hand-writ,  and  paines,  that  we  shall  defend  his  Per- 
son and  Authority  with  our  goods,  bodies,  and  lives,  in  the 
defence  of  Christ  his  Evangel,  Liberties  of  our  Countrey, 
ministration  of  Justice,  and  punishment  of  iniquity,  against 
all  enemies  within  this  Realme  or  without,  as  we  desire 
our  God  to  be  a  strong  and  mercifull  Defender  to  us  in 
the  day  of  our  death,  and  comming  of  our  LORD  JESUS 
CHRIST;  to  whom,  with  the  Father,  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
be  all  honour  and  glorie  eternally. 

[In  the  renewal  of  1638  there  is  added  a  rehearsal  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Scottish  Parliament  for  the  Confirmation 
and  Maintenance  of  the  Reformed  Religion,  concluding 
with  that  which  prescribed  the  coronation  oath  taken  by 
Charles  I.  in  1633,      It  then  proceeds:] 

In  obedience  to  the  commandment  of  God,  conform  to 
the  practice  of  the  godly  in  former  times,  and  according 
to  the  laudable  example  of  our  worthy  and  religious  Pro- 
genitors, and  of  many  yet  living  amongst  us,  which  was 
warranted  also  by  Act  of  Councell,  commanding  a  gen- 
erall  Band  to  bee  made  and  subscribed  by  his  Majestie's 
subjects  of  all  ranks,  for  two  causes:  One  was,  for  de- 
fending the  true  Religion,  as  it  was  then  reformed,  and  is 
expressed  in  the  Confession  of  Faith  above  written,  and 
a  former  large  Confession  established  by  sundrie  Acts  of 
lawfull  Generall  Assemblies  and  of  Parlament,  unto  which 
it  hath  relation  set  downe  in  publicke  Cathechismes,  and 
which  had  beene  for  many  yeeres,  with  a  blessing  from 
heaven,  preached  and  professed  in  this  Kirk  and  King- 


THE   NATIONAL    COVENANT.  32  I 

dome,  as  God's  undoubted  truth,  grounded  onely  upon  his 
written  Word  ;  The  other  cause  was,  for  maintaining  the 
King's  Majestic  his  Person  and  Estate  ;  the  true  worship  of 
God,  and  the  King's  authoritie  being  so  straightly  joyned, 
as  that  they  had  the  same  friends  and  common  enemies, 
and  did  stand  and  fall  together.  And,  finally,  being  con- 
vinced in  our  minds,  and  confessing  with  our  mouthes,  that 
the  present  and  succeeding  generations  in  this  Land  are 
bound  to  keep  the  foresaid  nationall  Oath  and  subscription 
inviolable,  Wee  Noblemen,  Barons,  Gentlemen,  Burgesses, 
Ministers  and  Commons  under  subscribing,  considering- 
divers  times  before,  and  especially  at  this  time,  the  dan- 
ger of  the  true  reformed  Religion,  of  the  King's  honour, 
and  of  the  publicke  peace  of  the  Kingdome,  by  the  mani- 
fold innovations  and  evils  generally  contained  and  particu- 
larly mentioned  in  our  late  supplications,  complaints,  and 
protestations,  doe  hereby  professe,  and,  before  God,  his 
Angels,  and  the  World,  solemnely  declare,  That,  with  our 
whole  hearts  wee  agree  and  resolve  all  the  dales  of  our  life 
constantly  to  adhere  unto,  and  to  defend  the  foresaid  true 
Religion,  and  forbearing  the  practice  of  all  novations  al- 
ready introduced  in  the  matters  of  the  worship  of  God,  or 
approbation  of  the  corruptions  of  the  publick  Government 
of  the  Kirk,  or  civill  places  and  power  of  Kirkmen,  till 
they  bee  tryed  and  allowed  in  free  Assemblies,  and  in 
Parlaments,  to  labour  by  all  meanes  lawfuU  to  recover  the 
purit}^  and  libertle  of  the  Gospel,  as  it  was  established  and 
professed  before  the  foresaid  novations  :  And  because,  after 
due  examination,  we  plainly  perceive;  and  undoubtedly 
beleeve,  that  the  Innovations  and  evils  contained  in  our 
Supplications,  Complaints,  and  Protestations  have  no  war- 
rant of  the  Word  of  God,  are  contrary  to  the  Articles  of 
the  foresaid  Confessions,  to  the  intention  and  meaning  of 
the  blessed  Reformers  of  Religion  in  this  Land,  to  the 
above  written  Acts  of  Parlament,  and  doe  sensibly  tend 
to  the  re-establishing  of  the  Popish  Religion  and  tyranny, 
and  to  the  subversion  and  mine  of  the  true  Reformed  Re- 
ligion, and  of  our  Liberties,  Lawes,  and  Estates.     We  also 


322  APPEXDIX. 

declare,  that  the  foresaid  Confessions  are  to  bee  inter- 
preted, and  ouglit  to  be  understood  of  the  foresaid  nova- 
tions and  evils,  no  lesse  then  if  everie  one  of  them  had 
beene  expressed  in  the  foresaid  Confessions ;  and  that  wee 
are  obliged  to  detest  and  abhorre  them,  amongst  other 
particular  heads  of  Papistrie  abjured  therein.  And,  there- 
fore, from  the  knowledge  and  conscience  of  our  dutie  to 
God,  to  our  King  and  countrey,  without  any  worldly  re- 
spect or  inducement,  so  farre  as  humane  infirmitie  will 
suffer,  wishing  a  further  measure  of  the  grace  of  God  for 
this  effect.  We  promise  and  sweare,  by  the  GREAT  Name 
OF  THE  LORD  OUR  GOD,  to  continue  in  the  Profession 
and  Obedience  of  the  foresaid  Religion :  That  we  shall 
defend  the  same,  and  resist  all  these  contrarie  errours  and 
corruptions,  according  to  our  vocation,  and  to  the  utter- 
most of  that  power  that  God  hath  put  in  our  hands,  all 
the  dayes  of  our  life :  And,  in  like  manner,  with  the  same 
heart,  we  declare  before  God  and  Men,  That  wee  have  no 
intention  nor  desire  to  attempt  anything  that  may  turne  to 
the  dishonour  of  God,  or  to  the  diminution  of  the  King's 
Greatnesse  and  authoritie :  But,  on  the  contrarie,  wee 
promise  and  sweare,  that  wee  shall,  to  the  uttermost  of 
our  power,  with  our  meanes  and  lives,  stand  to  the  de- 
fence of  our  dread  Soveraign,  the  King's  Majestic,  his 
person  and  authoritie,  in  the  defence  and  preservation  of 
the  foresaid  true  Religion,  Liberties,  and  Lawes  of  the 
Kingdome :  As,  also,  to  the  mutuall  defence  and  assist- 
ance, everie  one  of  us  of  another  in  the  same  cause  of 
maintaining  the  true  Religion,  and  his  Majestie's  author- 
itie, with  our  best  counsell,.our  bodies,  meanes,  and  whole 
power,  against  all  sorts  of  persons  whatsoever.  So  that, 
whatsoever  shall  be  done  to  the  least  of  us  for  that  cause, 
shall  be  taken  as  done  to  us  all  in  generall,  and  to  everie 
one  of  us  in  particular.  And  that  wee  shall  neither  directly 
nor  indirectly  suffer  ourselves  to  be  divided  or  withdrawn 
by  whatsoever  suggestion,  combination,  allurement,  or  ter- 
rour,  from  this  blessed  and  loyall  conjunction,  nor  shall 
cast  in  any  let  or  impediment  that   may  stay  or  hinder 


THE  NATIONAL    COVENANT.  323 

any  such  resolution,  as  by  common  consent  shall  be  found 
to  conduce  for  so  good  ends.  But,  on  the  contrarie,  shall, 
by  all  lawfull  meanes,  labour  to  further  and  promove  the 
same ;  and  if  any  such  dangerous  and  divisive  motion  be 
made  to  us  by  word  or  writ,  wee,  and  everie  one  of  us, 
shall  either  suppresse  it,  or,  if  need  be,  shall  incontinent 
make  the  same  known,  that  it  may  bee  timeously  obvi- 
ated ;  neither  do  we  feare  the  foule  aspersions  of  rebel- 
lion, combination,  or  what  else  our  adversaries,  from  their 
craft  and  malice  would  put  upon  us,  seeing  what  we  do  is 
so  well  warranted,  and  ariseth  from  arwunfained  desire  to 
maintaine  the  true  worship  of  God,  the  majestic  of  our 
King,  and  the  peace  of  the  Kingdome,  for  the  common 
happiness  of  ourselves  and  posteritie.  And  because  we 
cannot  look  for  a  blessing  from  God  upon  our  proceedings, 
except  with  our  profession  and  subscription  we  joyne  such 
a  life  and  conversation,  as  beseemeth  Christians,  who  have 
renewed  their  Covenant  with  God ;  Wee  therefore  faith- 
fully promise,  for  ourselves,  our  followers,  and  all  others 
under  us,  both  in  publicke,  in  our  particular  families  and 
personall  carriage,  to  endevour  to  keep  ourselves  within 
the  bounds  of  Christian  libertie,  and  to  be  good  examples 
to  others  of  all  Godlinesse,  Sobernesse,  and  Righteousness, 
and  of  everie  dutie  we  owe  to  God  and  Man.  And  that 
this  our  Union  and  Conjunction  may  be  observed  with- 
out violation,  we  call  the  living  God,  the  Searcher  of  our 
Hearts,  to  witnesse,  who  knoweth  this  to  be  our  sincere 
Desire,  and  unfained  Resolution,  as  wee  shall  answer  to 
JESUS  CHRIST  in  the  great  day,  and  under  the  paine 
of  God's  everlasting  wrath,  and  of  infamie,  and  of  losse  of 
all  honour  and  respect  in  this  World.  Most  humblie  be- 
seeching the  LORD,  to  strengthen  us  by  his  Holy  Spirit 
for  this  end,  and  to  bless  our  desires  and  proceedings  with 
a  happie  success,  that  Religion  and  Righteousnesse  may 
flourish  in  the  land,  to  the  glorie  of  God,  the  honour  of 
our  King,  and  peace  and  comfort  of  us  all.  In  witnesse 
whereof  we  have  subscribed  with  our  hands  all  the  prem- 
isses, &c. 


324  APPENDIX. 


II.  A  SOLEMNE  LEAGUE  AND  COVENANT  FOR  REFORMA- 
TION AND  DEFENCE  OF  RELIGION,  THE  HONOR  AND 
HAPPINESSE  OF  THE  KING,  AND  THE  PEACE  AND 
SAFETY  OF  THE  THREE  KINGDOMES  OF  SCOTLAND, 
ENGLAND,    AND    IRELAND.       [ADOPTED    1 643.] 

Wee,  Noblemen,  Barons,  Knights,  Gentlemen,  Citizens, 
Burgesses,  Ministers  of  the  Gospel,  and  Commons  of  all 
sorts,  in  the  kingdomes  of  Scotland,  England,  and  Ire- 
land, by  the  providence  of  GOD,  living  under  one  King, 
and  being  of  one  reformed  religion,  having  before  our 
eyes  the  glory  of  GOD,  and  the  advancement  of  the  king- 
dome  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  CHRIST,  the  honour 
and  happinesse  of  the  Kings  Majesty  and  his  posterity, 
and  the  true  publick  liberty,  safety,  and  peace  of  the  king- 
domes,  wherein  every  ones  private  condition  is  included : 
And  calling  to  minde  the  treacherous  and  bloudy  plots, 
conspiracies,  attempts,  and  practices  of  the  enemies  of 
GOD,  against  the  true  religion  and  professours  thereof  in 
all  places,  especially  in  these  three  kingdomes,  ever  since 
the  reformation  of  religion ;  and  how  much  their  rage, 
power,  and  presumption  are  of  late,  and  at  this  timiC,  in- 
creased and  exercised ;  whereof  the  deplorable  estate  of 
the  church  and  kingdome  of  Ireland,  the  distressed  estate 
of  the  church  and  kingdome  of  England,  and  the  danger- 
ous estate  of  the  church  and  kingdome  of  Scotland,  are 
present  and  publick  testimonies;  We  have  now  at  last, 
(after  other  means  of  supplication,  remonstrance,  protesta- 
tions, and  sufferings,)  for  the  preservation  of  ourselves  and 
our  religion  from  utter  ruin  and  destruction,  according  to 
the  commendable  practice  of  these  kingdomes  in  former 
times,  and  the  example  of  GODS  people  in  other  nations, 
after  mature  deliberation,  resolved  and  determined  to  enter 
into  a  mutuall  and  Solemne  League  and  Covenant,  wherein 
we  all  subscribe,  and  each  one  of  us  for  himself,  with  our 
hands  lifted  up  to  the  most  High  GOD,  do  swear, 

I .   That  we  shall  sincerely,  really,  and  constantly,  through 


SOLEMN  LEAGUE  AND    COVENANT.  325 

the  grace  of  GOD,  endeavour,  in  our  several  places  and 
callings,  the  preservation  of  the  reformed  religion  in  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  in  doctrine,  worship,  discipline,  and 
government,  against  our  common  enemies ;  the  reforma- 
tion of  religion  in  the  kingdomes  of  England  and  Ireland, 
in  doctrine,  worship,  discipline,  and  government,  according 
to  the  word  of  GOD,  and  the  example  of  the  best  reformed 
Churches ;  and  shall  endeavour  to  bring  the  Churches  of 
GOD  in  the  three  kingdomes  to  the  nearest  conjunction 
and  uniformity  in  religion,  confession  of  faith,  form  of 
church  government,  directory  for  worship  and  catechis- 
ing; that  we,  and  our  posterity  after  us,  may  as  brethren 
live  in  faith  and  love,  and  the  Lord  may  delight  to  dwell 
in  the  midst  of  us, 

2.  That  we  shall,  in  like  manner,  without  respect  of 
persons,  endeavour  the  extirpation  of  Popery,  Prelacy, 
(that  is,  church-government  by  Archbishops,  Bishops,  their 
Chancellors,  and  Commissaries,  Deans,  Deans  and  Chap- 
ters, Archdeacons,  and  all  other  ecclesiasticall  Officers,  de- 
pending on  that  hierarchy,)  superstition,  heresie,  schisme, 
profanenesse,  and  whatsoever  shall  be  found  to  be  con- 
trary to  sound  doctrine  and  the  power  of  godlinesse ;  lest 
we  partake  in  other  mens  sins,  and  thereby  be  in  danger 
to  receive  of  their  plagues ;  and  that  the  Lord  may  be  one, 
and  his  name  one  in  the  three  kingdomes. 

3.  We  shall,  with  the  same  sincerity,  reality,  and  con- 
stancie,  in  our  several  vocations,  endeavour,  with  our  estates 
and  lives,  mutually  to  preserve  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
the  Parliaments,  and  the  liberties  of  the  kingdomes ;  and 
to  preserve  and  defend  the  Kings  Majesties  person  and 
authoritie,  in  the  preservation  and  defence  of  the  true  re- 
ligion, and  Uberties  of  the  kingdomes ;  that  the  world  may 
bear  witnesse  with  our  consciences  of  our  loyalty,  and 
that  wee  have  no  thoughts  or  intensions  to  diminish  his 
Majesties  just  power  and  greatnesse. 

4.  We  shall  also,  with  all  faithfulnesse,  endeavour  the 
discovery  of  such  as  have  been,  or  shall  be  incendiaries, 
malignants,  or  evil  instruments,  by  hindering  the  reforma- 


326  APPENDIX. 

tion  of  religion,  dividing  the  King  from  his  people,  or  one 
of  the  kingdomes  from  another,  or  making  any  faction  or 
parties  among  the  people,  contrary  to  this  League  and 
Co\enant ;  that  they  may  be  brought  to  publick  triall,  and 
receive  condigne  punishment,  as  the  degree  of  their  offences 
shall  require  or  deserve,  or  the  supreame  judicatories  of  both 
kingdomes  respectively,  or  others,  having  power  from  them 
for  that  effect,  shall  judge  convenient. 

5.  And  whereas,  the  happinesse  of  a  blessed  peace  be- 
tween these  kingdomes,  denyed  in  former  times  to  our 
progenitors,  is,  by  the  good  providence  of  GOD,  granted 
unto  us,  and  hath  been  lately  concluded  and  settled  by 
both  Parliaments ;  we  shall  each  one  of  us,  according  to 
our  place  and  interest,  endeavour  that  they  may  remaine 
conjoined  in  a  firme  peace  and  union  to  all  posterity  ;  and 
that  justice  may  be  done  upon  the  wilfull  opposers  thereof, 
in  manner  expressed  in  the  precedent  article. 

6.  Wee  shall  also,  according  to  our  places  and  callings, 
in  this  common  cause  of  religion,  liberty,  and  peace  of  the 
kingdomes,  assist  and  defend  all  those  that  enter  into  this 
League  and  Covenant,  in  the  maintaining  and  pursuing 
thereof;  and  shall  not  suffer  ourselves,  directly  or  in- 
directly, by  whatsoever  combination,  persuasion,  or  ter- 
rour,  to  be  divided  and  withdrawn  from  this  blessed  union 
and  conjunction,  whether  to  make  defection  to  the  con- 
trary part,  or  to  give  ourselves  to  a  detestable  indifferency 
or  neutrality  in  this  cause,  which  so  much  concerneth  the 
glory  of  GOD,  the  good  of  the  kingdomes,  and  honour  of 
the  King;  but  shall,  all  the  days  of  our  lives,  zealously 
and  constantly  continue  therein  against  all  opposition,  and 
promote  the  same  according  to  our  power,  against  all  lets 
and  impediments  whatsoever;  and,  what  we  are  not  able 
ourselves  to  suppresse  or  overcome,  we  shall  reveal  and 
make  known,  that  it  may  be  timely  prevented  or  removed  : 
All  which  we  shall  do  as  in  the  sight  of  GOD  : 

And,  because  these  kingdomes  are  guilty  of  many  sins 
and  provocations  against  GOD,  and  his  Son  Jesus  CHRIST, 
as  is  too  manifest  by  our  present  distresses  and  dangers, 


ADOPTIXG  ACTS,  1G47.  ^2'] 

the  fruits  thereof ;  we  profess  and  declare,  before  GOD  and 
the  world,  our  unfeigned  desire  to  be  humbled  for  our  own 
sins,  and  for  the  sins  of  these  kingdomes :  especially,  that 
we  have  not  as  w^e  ought,  valued  the  inestimable  benefit 
of  the  gospel;  that  we  have  not  laboured  for  the  purity 
and  power  thereof;  and  that  we  have  not  endeavoured  to 
receive  CHRIST  in  our  hearts,  nor  to  walk  worthy  of  him 
in  our  lives,  which  are  the  causes  of  other  sins  and  trans- 
gressions so  much  abounding  amongst  us;  and  our  true 
and  unfeigned  purpose,  desire,  and  endeavour  for  our- 
selves, and  all  others  under  our  power  and  charge,  both  in 
publick  and  private,  in  all  duties  we  owe  to  GOD  and  man, 
to  amend  our  lives,  and  each  one  to  go  before  another  in 
the  example  of  a  reall  reformation ;  that  the  Lord  may 
turn  away  his  wrath  and  heavy  indignation,  and  establish 
these  churches  and  kingdomes  in  truth  and  peace.  And 
this  Covenant  we  make  in  the  presence  of  ALMIGHTY 
GOD,  the  Searcher  of  all  hearts,  with  a  true  intention  to 
performe  the  same,  as  we  shall  answer  at  that  great  day,, 
when  the  secrets  of  all  hearts  shall  bee  disclosed ;  most 
humbly  beseeching  the  LoRD  to  strengthen  us  by  his 
Holy  Spirit  for  this  end,  and  to  blesse  our  desires  and 
proceedings  with  such  successe,  as  may  be  deliverance  and 
safety  to  his  people,  and  encouragement  to  other  Christian 
churches,  groaning  under,  or  in  danger  of,  the  yoke  of  anti- 
christian  tyrannic,  to  joyn  in  the  same  or  like  association 
and  covenant,  to  the  glory  of  GOD,  the  enlargement  of 
the  kingdome  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  peace  and  tran- 
quillity of  Christian  kingdomes  and  commonwealths. 


III.   THE    ADOPTING    ACTS    OF    1 647. 
{a)  Appj'obation  of  tJie  Confession  of  FaitJi. 

A  Confession  of  Faith  for  the  Kirks  of  God  in  the  three 
Kingdomes,  being  the  chiefest  part  of  that  Uniformity  in 
Relig;Ion  which  bv  the  Solemne  League  and  Covenant  w^e 


328  APPENDIX. 

are  bound  to  endeavour;  And  there  being  accordingly  a 
Confession  of  Faith  agreed  upon  by  the  Assembly  of 
Divines  sitting  at  Westminster,  with  the  assistance  of 
Commissioners  from  the  Kirk  of  Scotland ;  Which  Confes- 
sion was  sent  from  our  Commissioners  at  London  to  the 
Commissioners  of  the  Kirk  met  at  Edinburgh  in  January 
last,  and  hath  been  in  this  Assembly  twice  publikely  read 
over,  examined,  and  considered  ;  Copies  thereof  being  also 
Printed,  that  it  might  be  particularly  perused  by  all  the 
Members  of  this  Assem.bly,  unto  whom  frequent  intimation 
was  publikely  made,  to  put  in  their  doubts  and  objections 
if  they  had  any  ;  And  the  said  Confession  being  upon  due 
examination  thereof  found  by  the  Assembly  to  bee  most 
agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  in  nothing  contrary  to 
the  received  Doctrine,  Worship,  Discipline,  and  Govern- 
ment of  this  Kirk :  And  lastly,  it  being  so  necessary  and 
so  much  longed  for,  That  the  said  Confession  be  with  all 
possible  diligence  and  expedition  approved  and  established 
in  both  Kingdomes,  as  a  principall  part  of  the  intended 
Uniformity  in  Religion,  and  as  a  speciall  means  for  the 
more  effectuall  suppressing  of  the  many  dangerous  errours 
and  heresies  of  these  times ;  The  Generall  Assembly  doth 
therefore  after  mature  diliberation  Agree  unto  and  Ap- 
prove the  said  Confession  as  to  the  truth  of  the  matter 
(judging  it  to  be  most  orthodox  and  grounded  upon  the 
Word  of  God)  and  also  as  to  the  point  of  Uniformity, 
Agreeing  for  our  part  that  it  be  a  common  Confession  of 
Faith  for  the  three  Kingdomes.  The  Assembly  doth  also 
blesse  the  Lord,  and  thankfully  acknowledge  his  great 
mercy,  in  that  so  excellent  a  Confession  of  Faith  is  pre- 
pared, and  thus  far  agreed  upon  in  both  Kingdomes ; 
which  we  look  upon  as  a  great  strengthening  of  the  true 
Reformed  Religion  against  the  common  enemies  thereof. 
But  lest  our  intention  and  meaning  be  in  some  particulars 
misunderstood.  It  is  hereby  expressly  Declared  and  Pro- 
vided, that  the  not  mentioning  in  this  Confession  the  sev- 
erall  sorts  of  Ecclesiasticall  Officers  and  Assemblies,  shall 
be  no  prejudice  to  the  Truth  of  Christ  in  these  particulars 


ADOPTING   ACTS,  1647.  329 

to  be  expressed  fully  in  the  Directory  of  Government. 
It  is  further  Declared,  that  the  Assembly  understandeth 
some  parts  of  the  second  Article  of  the  thirty  one  Chap- 
ter, only  of  Kirks  not  settled  or  constituted  in  point  of 
Government ;  And  that  although  in  such  Kirks,  a  Synod 
of  Ministers  and  other  fit  persons  may  be  called  by  the 
Magistrates  authority  and  nomination  without  any  other 
Call,  to  consult  and  advise  with  about  matters  of  Re- 
ligion ;  And  although  likewise  the  Ministers  of  Christ 
without  delegation  from  their  Churches,  may  of  them- 
selves and  by  vertue  of  their  Ofnce  meet  together  Synod- 
ically  in  such  Kirks  not  yet  constituted;  Yet  neither  of 
these  ought  to  be  done  in  Kirks  constituted  and  setled : 
It  being  alwayes  free  to  the  Magistrate  to  advise  with 
Synods  of  Ministers  and  ruling  Elders  meeting  upon  dele- 
gation from  their  Churches,  either  ordinarily,  or  being  in- 
dicted by  his  Authority  occasionally  and  pro  re  nata;  It 
being  also  free  to  assemble  together  Synodically,  as  well 
pro  re  nata,  as  at  the  ordinary  times  upon  delegation  from 
the  Churches,  by  the  intrinsicall  power  received  from 
Christ,  as  often  as  it  is  necessary  for  the  good  of  the 
Church  so  to  assemble,  in  case  the  Magistrate  to  the  det- 
riment of  the  Church  withhold  or  deny  his  consent,  the 
necessity  of  occasional!  Assemblies  being  first  remonstrate 
unto  him  by  humble  supplication. 

(b)    The  Psalm-Book. 

The  Generall  Assembly,  having  considered  the  report  of 
the  Committee,  concerning  the  Paraphrase  of  the  Psalmes 
sent  from  England  :  And  finding  that  it  is  very  necessary, 
that  the  said  Paraphrase  be  yet  revised ;  Therefore  doth 
appoint  Master  John  Adamson  to  examine  the  first  fourty 
Psalmes,  Master  Thomas  Craufurd  the  second  fourty.  Mas- 
ter John  Row  the  third  fourty,  and  Master  John  Nevey 
the  last  thirty  Psalms  of  that  Paraphrase ;  and  in  their 
Examination  they  shall  not  only  observe  what  they  think 
needs  to  be  amended,  but  also  to  set  downe  their  own 


330  APPENDIX. 

essay  for  correcting  thereof:  And  for  this  purpose  recom- 
mends to  them,  to  make  use  of  the  travels  of  Rowallen, 
Master  Zachary  Boyd,  or  of  any  other  on  that  subject,  but 
especially  of  our  own  Paraphrase,  that  what  they  finde 
better  in  any  of  these  Works  may  be  chosen :  and  likewise 
they  shall  make  use  of  the  animadversions  sent  from  Pres- 
byteries, who  for  this  cause  are  hereby  desired  to  hasten 
their  observations  unto  them :  And  they  are  to  make 
report  of  their  labours  herein  to  the  Commission  of  the 
Assembly  for  publike  affaires  against  their  first  meeting 
in  February  next:  And  the  Commission  after  revising 
thereof,  shall  send  the  same  to  Provinciall  Assemblies,  to 
bee  transmitted  to  Presbyteries,  that  by  their  further  con- 
sideration, the  matter  may  be  fully  prepared  to  the  next 
Assembly:  And  because  some  Psalmes  in  that  Paraphrase 
sent  from  England  are  composed  in  verses  which  do  not 
agree  with  the  Common-tunes,  Therefore  it  is  also  recom- 
mended that  these  Psalms  be  likewise  turned  in  other 
verses  which  may  agree  to  the  Common-tunes,  that  is, 
having  the  first  line  of  eight  syllabs,  and  the  second  line 
of  six,  that  so  both  versions  being  together,  use  may  bee 
made  of  either  of  them  in  Congregations  as  shall  be  found 
convenient :  And  the  Assembly  doth  further  recommend. 
That  M.  Zachary  Boyd  be  at  the  paines  to  translate  the 
other  Scripturall  Songs  in  meeter,  and  to  report  his  travels' 
also  to  the  Commission  of  Assembly,  that  after  their  t^x- 
amination  thereof,  they  may  send  the  same  to  Presbyteries 
to  be  there  considered  untill  the  next  Generall  Assembly. 


IV.    THE    ADOPTING   ACT    OF   THE    SYNOD    OF    PHILA- 
DELPHIA,  1729. 

Although  the  Synod  do  not  claim  or  pretend  to  any 
authority  of  imposing  our  faith  upon  other  men's  con- 
sciences, but  do  profess  our  just  dissatisfaction  with,  and 
abhorrence  of  such  impositions,  and  do  utterly  disclaim  all 
legislative  power  and  authority  in  the  Church,  being  will- 


ADOPTING  ACTS,  1729.  33  I 

ing  to  receive  one  another  as  Christ  has  received  us  to  the 
glory  of  God,  and  admit  to  fellowship  in  sacred  ordinances, 
all  such  as  we  have  grounds  to  believe  Christ  will  at  last 
admit  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  yet  we  are  undoubtedly 
obliged  to  take  care  that  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints  be  kept  pure  and  uncorrupt  among  us,  and  so 
handed  down  to  our  posterity;  and  do  therefore  agree 
that  all  the  ministers  of  this  Synod,  or  that  shall  hereafter 
be  admitted  into  this  Synod,  shall  declare  their  agreement 
in,  and  approbation  of,  the  Confession  of  Faith,  with  the 
Larger  and  Shorter  Catechisms  of  the  Assembly  of  Divines 
at  Westminster,  as  being  in  all  the  essential  and  necessary 
articles,  good  forms  of  sound  words  and  systems  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  and  do  also  adopt  the  said  Confession  and 
Catechisms  as  the  confession  of  our  faith.  And  we  do 
also  agree,  that  all  the  Presbyteries  within  our  bounds 
shall  always  take  care  not  to  admit  any  candidate  of  the 
ministry  into  the  exercise  of  the  sacred  function  but  what 
declares  his  agreement  in  opinion  with  all  the  essential  and 
necessary  articles  of  said  Confession,  either  by  subscrib- 
ing the  said  Confession  of  Faith  and  Catechisms,  or  by  a 
verbal  declaration  of  their  assent  thereto,  as  such  minister 
or  candidate  shall  think  best.  And  in  case  any  minister 
of  this  Synod,  or  any  candidate  for  the  ministry,  shall 
have  any  scruple  with  respect  to  any  article  or  articles  of 
said  Confession  or  Catechisms,  he  shall  at  the  time  of  his 
making  said  declaration  declare  his  sentiments  to  the  Pres- 
bytery or  Synod,  who  shall,  notwithstanding,  admit  him 
to  the  exercise  of  the  ministry  within  our  bounds,  and  to 
ministerial  communion,  if  the,  Synod  or  Presbytery  shall 
judge  his  scruple  or  mistake  to  be  only  about  articles  not 
essential  and  necessary  in  doctrine,  worship,  or  govern- 
ment. But  if  the  Synod  or  Presbytery  shall  judge  such 
ministers  or  candidates  erroneous  in  essential  and  neces- 
sary articles  of  faith,  the  Synod  or  Presbytery  shall  de- 
clare them  uncapable  of  communion  with  them.  And  the 
Synod  do  solemnly  agree,  that  none  of  us  will  traduce  or 
use  any  opprobrious  terms  of  those  that  differ  from  us  in 


332  APPENDIX. 

these  extra- essential  and  not  necessary  points  of  doctrine, 
but  treat  them  with  the  same  friendship,  kindness,  and 
brotherly  love,  as  if  they  had  not  differed  from  us  in  such 
sentiments. 

All  the  ministers  of  this  Synod  now  present,  except 
one  that  declared  himself  not  prepared,  viz.  Masters  Jedi- 
diah  Andrews,  Thomas  Craighead,  John  Thomson,  James 
Anderson,  John  Pierson,  Samuel  Gelston,  Joseph  Houston, 
Gilbert  Tennent,  Adam  Boyd,  Jonathan  Dickinson,  John 
Bradner,  Alexander  Hutchinson,  Thomas  Evans,  Hugh 
Stevenson,  William  Tennent,  Hugh  Conn,  George  Gilles- 
pie, and  John  Willson,  after  proposing  all  the  scruples  that 
any  of  them  had  to  make  against  any  articles  and  expres- 
sions in  the  Confession  of  Faith  and  Larger  and  Shorter 
Catechisms  of  the  Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westmin.ster, 
have  unanimously  agreed  in  the  solution  of  those  scruples, 
and  in  declaring  the  said  Confession  and  Catechisms  to  be 
the  confession  of  their  faith,  excepting  only  some  clauses 
in  the  twentieth  and  twenty-third  chapters,  concerning 
which  clauses  the  Synod  do  unanimously  declare,  that 
they  do  not  receive  those  articles  in  any  such  sense  as  to 
suppose  the  civil  magistrate  hath  a  controlling  power  over 
Synods  with  respect  to  the  exercise  of  their  ministerial 
authority  ;  or  power  to  persecute  any  for  their  religion,  or 
in  any  sense  contrary  to  the  Protestant  succession  to  the 
throne  of  Great  Britain. 

The  Synod  observing  that  unanimity,  peace,  and  unity, 
which  appeared  in  all  their  consultations  and  determina- 
tions relating  to  the  affair  of  the  Confession,  did  unani- 
mously agree  in  giving  tl^anks  to  God  in  solemn  prayer 
and  praises. 

V.    THE    SYNOD    OF    PHILADELPHIA'S    EXPLANATORY 
ACT    OF    1736. 

An  overture  of  the  committee  upon  the  supplication  of 
the  people  of  Paxton  and  Derry,  was  brought  in  and  is  as 
followeth.     That  the  Synod  do  declare,  that  inasmuch  as 


EXPLANATORY  ACT,  1736.  333 

we  understand  that  many  persons  of  our  persuasion,  both 
more  lately  and  formerly,  have  been  offended  with  some 
expressions  or  distinctions  in  the  first  or  preliminary  act 
of  our  Synod,  contained  in  the  printed  paper,  relating  to 
our  receiving-  or  adopting  the  Westminster  Confession  and 
Catechisms,  &c :  That  in  order  to  remove  said  offence,  and 
all  jealousies  that  have  arisen  or  may  arise  in  any  of  our 
people's  minds,  on  occasion  of  said  distinctions  and  ex- 
pressions, the  Synod  doth  declare,  that  the  Synod  have 
adopted  and  still  do  adhere  to  the  Westminster  Confession, 
Catechisms,  and  Directory,  without  the  least  variation  or 
alteration,  and  without  any  regard  to  said  distinctions. 
And  we  do  further  declare,  that  this  was  our  meaning 
and  true  intent  in  our  first  adopting  of  said  Confession, 
as  may  particularly  appear  by  our  adopting  act  which  is 
as  foUoweth :  All  the  ministers  of  the  Synod  now  present 
(which  were  eighteen  in  number,  except  one  that  declared 
himself  not  prepared,)  after  proposing  all  the  scruples  any 
of  them  had  to  make  against  any  articles  and  expressions 
in  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  Larger  and  Shorter  Cate- 
chisms of  the  Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westminster,  have 
unanimously  agreed  in  the  solution  of  these  scruples,  and 
in  declaring  the  said  Confession  and  Catechisms  to  be  the 
confession  of  their  faith,  except  only  some  clauses  in  the 
twentieth  and  twenty-third  chapters,  concerning  which 
clauses  the  Synod  do  unanimously  declare,  that  they  do 
not  receive  these  articles  in  any  such  sense  as  to  suppose 
the  civil  magistrate  hath  a  controlling  power  over  Synods 
with  respect  to  the  exercise  of  their  ministerial  authority, 
or  power  to  persecute  any  for  their  religion,  or  in  any 
sense  contrary  to  the  Protestant  succession  to  the  throne 
of  Great  Britain. 

And  we  hope  and  desire,  that  this  our  Synodical  dec- 
laration and  explication  may  satisfy  all  our  people,  as  to 
our  firm  attachment  to  our  good  old  received  doctrines 
contained  in  said  Confession,  Avithout  the  least  variation 
or  alteration,  and  that  they  will  lay  aside  their  jealousies 
that  have  been  entertained  through  occasion  of  the  above 


334  APPENDIX, 

hinted  expressions  and  declarations  as  groundless.     This 
overture  approved  neiniiie  cojitradicente. 


VI.    THE    PROTESTATION    OF    1 74 1,    WHICH    OCCASIONED 
THE    DIVISION    OF   THE    SYNOD    OF    PHILADELPHIA. 

Reverend  Fathers  and  Brethren, 

We,  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  members  of  the 
Synod  of  Philadelphia,  being  wounded  and  grieved  at  our 
very  hearts,  at  the  dreadful  divisions,  distractions,  and 
convulsions,  which  all  of  a  sudden  have  seized  this  infant 
church  to  such  a  degree,  that  unless  He,  who  is  King  in 
Zion,  do  graciously  and  seasonably  interpose  for  our  re- 
lief, she  is  in  no  small  danger  of  expiring  outright,  and 
that  quickly,  as  to  the  form,  order,  and  constitution,  of 
an  organized  church,  which  hath  subsisted  for  above  these 
thirty  years  past,  in  a  very  great  degree  of  comely  order 
and  sweet  harmony,  until  of  late — we  say,  we  being  deeply 
afflicted  with  these  things  which  lie  heavy  on  our  spirits, 
and  being  sensible  that  it  is  our  indispensable  duty  to  do 
w^iat  lies  in  our  power,  in  a  lawful  way,  according  to  the 
light  and  direction  of  the  inspired  oracles,  to  preserve  this 
swooning  church  from  a  total  expiration :  and  after  the 
deliberate  and  unprejudiced  inquiry  into  the  causes  of 
these  confusions  which  rage  so  among  us,  both  ministers 
and  people,  we  evidently  seeing,  and  being  fully  persuaded 
in  our  judgments,  that  besides  our  misimprovement  of, 
and  unfruitfulness  under,  gospel  light,  liberty,  and  privi- 
lege, that  great  decay  of  practical  godliness  in  the  life  and 
power  of  it,  and  many  abounding  immoralities :  we  say, 
besides  these,  our  sins,  which  we  judge  to  be  the  merito- 
rious cause  of  our  present  doleful  distractions,  the  awful 
judgment  we  at  present  groan  under,  we  evidently  see 
that  our  protesting  brethren  and  their  adherents  w^ere  the 
direct  and  proper  cause  thereof,  by  their  unwearied,  un- 
scriptural,  antipresbyterial,  uncharitable,  divisive  practices, 
which  they  hav-e  been  pursuing,  with  all  the  industry  they 


THE  PROTESTATIOX,  174I.  335 

were  capable  of,  with  any  probability  of  success,  for  above 
these  twelve  months  past  especially,  besides  too  much  of 
the  like  practices  for  some  years  before,  though  not  with 
such  barefaced  arrogance  and  boldness : 

And  being  fully  convinced  in  our  judgments,  that  it  is 
our  duty  to  bear  testimony  against  these  disorderly  pro- 
ceedings, according  to  our  stations,  capacity,  and  trust 
reposed  in  us  by  our  exalted  Lord,  as  watchmen  on  the 
walls  of  his  Zion,  we  having  endeavoured  sincerely  to 
seek  counsel  and  direction  from  God,  who  hath  promised 
to  give  wisdom  to  those  that  ask  him  in  faith,  yea,  hath 
promised  his  Holy  Spirit  to  lead  his  people  and  servants 
into  all  truth,  and  being  clearly  convinced  in  our  con- 
sciences, that  it  is  a  duty  called  unto  in  this  present  junc- 
ture of  affairs : 

Reverend  Fathers  and  Brethren,  we  hereby  humbly  and 
solemnly  protest,  in  the  presence  of  the  great  and  eternal 
God,  and  his  elect  angels,  as  well  as  in  the  presence  of  all 
here  present,  and  particularly  to  you.  Reverend  Brethren, 
in  our  own  names,  and  in  the  names  of  all,  both  ministers 
and  people,  who  shall  adhere  to  us,  as  follows : 

1.  We  protest  that  it  is  the  indispensable  duty  of  this 
Synod,  to  maintain  and  stand  by  the  principles  of  doc- 
trine, worship,  and  government,  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 
as  the  same  are  summed  up  in  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
Catechisms,  and  Directory,  composed  by  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  as  being  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God,  and 
which  this  Synod  have  owned,  acknowledged,  and  adopted, 
as  may  appear  by  our  synodical  records  of  the  years  i  729, 
1736,  which  we  desire  to  be  read  publicly. 

2.  We  protest  that  no  person,  minister  or  elder,  should 
be  allowed  to  sit  and  vote  in  this  Synod,  who  hath  not 
received,  adopted,  or  subscribed,  the  said  Confession,  Cate- 
chisms, and  Directory,  as  our  Presbyteries  respectively  do, 
according  to  our  last  explication  of  the  adopting  act ;  or 
who  is  either  accused  or  convicted,  or  may  be  convicted 
before  this  Synod,  or  any  of  our  Presbyteries,  of  holding 
or  maintaining  any  doctrine,  or  who  act  and  persist  in  any 


336  APPENDIX. 

practice,  contrary  to  any  of  those  doctrines,  or  rules  con- 
tained in  said  Directory,  or  contrary  to  any  of  the  known 
rights  of  Presbytery,  or  orders  made  or  agreed  to  by  this 
Synod,  and  which  stand  yet  unrepealed,  unless,  or  until  he 
renounce  such  doctrine,  and  being  found  guilty,  acknowl- 
edge, confess,  and  profess  his  sorrow  for  such  sinful  dis- 
order, to  the  satisfaction  of  this  Synod,  or  such  inferior 
judicatory  as  the  Synod  shall  appoint  or  empower  for  that 
purpose. 

3.  We  protest  that  all  our  protesting  brethren  have  at 
present  no  right  to  sit  and  vote  as  members  of  this  Synod, 
having  forfeited  their  right  of  being  accounted  members 
of  it  for  many  reasons,  a  few  of  which  we  shall  mention 
afterwards. 

4.  We  protest  that,  if,  notwithstanding  of  this  our  pro- 
testation, these  brethren  be  allowed  to  sit  and  vote  in  this 
Synod,  without  giving  suitable  satisfaction  to  the  Synod, 
and  particularly  to  us,  who  now  enter  this  protestation, 
and  those  who  adhere  to  us  in  it,  that  whatsoever  shall  be 
done,  voted,  or  transacted  by  them,  contrary  to  our  judg- 
ment, shall  be  of  no  force  or  obligation  to  us,  being  done 
and  acted  by  a  judicatory  consisting  in  part  of  members 
who  have  no  authority  to  act  with  us  in  ecclesiastical 
matters. 

5.  We  protest  that,  if,  notwithstanding  this  our  protes- 
tation, and  contrary  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  it, 
these  protesting  brethren,  and  such  as  adhere  to  them,  or 
support  and  countenance  them  in  their  antipresbyterial 
practices,  shall  continue  to  act  as  they  have  done  this  last 
year,  in  that  case  we,  and  as  many  as  have  clearness  to 
join  with  us,  and  maintain  the  rights  of  this  judicatory, 
shall  be  accounted  in  nowise  disorderly,  but  the  true  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  this  province  ;  and  they  shall  be  looked 
upon  as  guilty  of  schism,  and  the  breach  of  the  rules  of 
Presbyterial  government,  which  Christ  has  established  in 
his  church,  which  we  are  ready  at  ail  times  to  demonstrate 
to  the  world. 

Reverend  and  dear  Brethren,  we  beseech  you  to  hear 


THE  PROTEST ATJON,  17 4I.  337 

US  with  patience,  while  we  lay  before  you  as  briefly  as  we 
can,  some  of  the  reasons  that  move  us  thus  to  protest,  and 
more  particularly,  why  we  protest  against  our  protesting 
brethren's  being  allowed  to  sit  as  members  of  this  Synod. 

1.  Their  heterodox  and  anarchical  principles  expressed 
in  their  Apology,  pages  twenty-eight  and  thirty-nine, 
where  they  expressly  deny  that  Presbyteries  have  author- 
ity to  oblige  their  dissenting  members,  and  that  Synods 
should  go  any  further,  in  judging  of  appeals  or  references, 
&c.,  than  to  give  their  best  advice,  which  is  plainly  to 
divest  the  officers  and  judicatories  of  Christ's  kingdom  of 
all  authority,  (and  plainly  contradicts  the  thirty-first  arti- 
cle of  our  Confession  of  Faith,  section  three,  which  these 
brethren  pretend  to  adopt,)  agreeable  to  which  is  the 
whole  superstructure  of  arguments  which  they  advance 
and  maintain  against  not  only  our  synodical  acts,  but  also 
all  authority  to  make  any  acts  or  orders  that  shall  bind 
their  dissenting  members,  throughout  their  whole  Apology. 

2.  Their  protesting  against  the  Synod's  act  in  relation 
to  the  examination  of  candidates,  together  with  their  pro- 
ceeding to  license  and  ordain  men  to  the  ministry  of  the 
gospel,  in  opposition  to,  and  in  contempt  of  said  act  of 
Synod. 

3.  Their  making  irregular  irruptions  upon  the  congrega- 
tions to  which  they  have  no  immediate  relation,  without 
order,  concurrence,  or  allowance  of  the  Presbyteries  or 
ministers  to  which  congregations  belong,  thereby  sowing 
the  seeds  of  division  among  people,  and  doing  what  they 
can  to  alienate  and  fill  their  minds  with  unjust  prejudices 
against  their  lawfully  called  pastors. 

4.  Their  principles  and  practices  of  rash  judging  and 
condemning  all  who  do  not  fall  in  with  their  measures, 
both  ministers  and  people,  as  carnal,  graceless,  and  enemies 
to  the  work  of  God,  and  what  not,  as  appears  in  Mr.  Gil- 
bert Tennent's  sermon  against  unconverted  ministers,  and 
his  and  Mr.  Blair's  papers  of  May  last,  which  were  read 
in  open  Synod  ;  which  rash  judging  has  been  the  constant 
practice  of  our  protesting  brethren,  and  their  irregular  pro- 


338  APPENDIX. 

bationers,  for  above  these  twelve  months  past,  in  their  dis- 
orderly itinerations  and  preaching  through  our  congrega- 
tions, by  which,  (alas!  for  it,)  most  of  our  congregations, 
through  weakness  and  credulity,  are  so  shattered  and 
divided,  and  shaken  in  their  principles,  that  few  or  none 
of  us  can  say  we  enjoy  the  comfort,  or  have  the  success 
among  our  people,  which  otherwise  we  might,  and  which 
we  enjoyed  heretofore. 

5.  Their  industriously  persuading  people  to  beHeve  that 
the  call  of  God  whereby  he  calls  men  to  the  ministry,  does 
not  consist  in  their  being  regularly  ordained  and  set  apart 
to  that  work,  according  to  the  institution  and  rules  of  the 
Word ;  but  in  some  invisible  motions  and  workings  of  the 
Spirit,  which  none  can  be  conscious  or  sensible  of  but  the 
person  himself,  and  with  respect  to  which  he  is  liable  to  be 
deceived,  or  play  the  hypocrite ;  that  the  gospel  preached 
in  truth  by  unconverted  ministers,  can  be  of  no  saving 
benefit  to  souls ;  and  their  pointing  out  such  ministers, 
whom  they  condemn  as  graceless  by  their  rash  judging 
spirit,  they  effectually  carry  the  point  with  the  poor  credu- 
lous people,  who,  in  imitation  of  their  example,  and  under 
their  patrociny,  judge  their  ministers  to  be  graceless,  and 
forsake  their  ministry  as  hurtful  rather  than  profitable. 

6.  Their  preaching  the  terrors  of  the  law  in  such  a  man- 
ner and  dialect  as  has  no  precedent  in  the  word  of  God, 
but  rather  appears  to  be  borrowed  from  a  worse  dialect ; 
and  so  industriously  working  on  the  passions  and  affections 
of  weak  minds,  as  to  cause  them  to  cry  out  in  a  hideous 
manner,  and  fall  down  in  convulsion-Hke  fits,  to  the  mar- 
ring of  the  profiting  both  of  themselves  and  others,  who 
are  so  taken  up  in  seeing  and  hearing  these  odd  symptoms, 
that  they  cannot  attend  to  or  hear  what  the  preacher  says  ; 
and  then,  after  all,  boasting  of  these  things  as  the  work  of 
God,  which  we  are  persuaded  do  proceed  from  an  inferior 
or  worse  cause. 

7.  Their,  or  some  of  them,  preaching  and  maintaining 
that  all  true  converts  are  as  certain  of  their  gracious  state 
as  a  person  can  be  of  what  he  knows  by  his  outward 


THE  FROTESTATIOX,  17 4L  339 

> 

senses;  and  are  able  to  give  a  narrative  of  the  time  and 
manner  of  their  conversion,  or  else  they  conclude  them  to 
be  in  a  natural  or  graceless  state,  and  that  a  gracious  per- 
son can  judge  of  another's  gracious  state  otherwise  than 
by  his  profession  and  life.  That  people  are  under  no 
sacred  tie  or  relation  to  their  own  pastors  lawfully  called, 
but  may  leave  them  when  they  please,  and  ought  to  go 
where  they  think  they  get  most  good. 

For  these  and  many  other  reasons,  we  protest,  before  the 
Eternal  God,  his  holy  angels,  and  you.  Reverend  Brethren, 
and  before  all  here  present,  that  these  brethren  have  no 
right  to  be  acknowledged  as  members  of  this  judicatory  of 
Christ,  whose  principles  and  practices  are  so  diametrically- 
opposite  to  our  doctrine,  and  principles  of  government 
and  order,  which  the  great  King  of  the  Church  hath  laid 
down  in  his  Word. 

How  absurd  and  monstrous  must  that  union  be,  where 
one  part  of  the  members  own  themselves  obliged,  in  con- 
science, to  the  judicial  determinations  of  the  whole,  founded 
on  the  Word  of  God,  or  else  relinquish  membership ;  and 
another  part  declare,  they  are  not  obliged  and  will  not 
submit,  unless  the  determination  be  according  to  their 
minds,  and  consequently  will  submit  to  no  rule,  in  mak- 
ing of  which  they  are  in  the  negative. 

Again,  how  monstrously  absurd  is  it,  that  they  should 
so  much  as  desire  to  join  with  us,  or  we  with  them,  as  a 
judicatory,  made  up  of  authoritative  officers  of  Jesus  Christ, 
while  they  openly  condemn  us  wholesale ;  and,  when  they 
please,  apply  their  condemnatory  sentences  to  particular 
brethren  by  name,  without  judicial  process,  or  proving 
them  guilty  of  heresy  or  immorality,  and  at  the  same 
time  will  not  hold  Christian  communion  with  them. 

Again,  how  absurd  is  the  union,  while  some  of  the 
members  of  the  same  body,  which  meet  once  a  year,  and 
join  as  a  judicatory  of  Christ,  do  all  the  rest  of  the  year 
what  they  can,  openly  and  above  board,  to  persuade  the 
people  and  flocks  of  their  brethren  and  fellow^  members, 
to  separate  from  their  own  pastors,  as  graceless  hypocrites. 


;4o 


ArPENDIX. 


and  }-et  they  do  not  separate  from  them  themselves,  but 
join  with  them  once  every  year,  as  members  of  the  same 
judicatory  of  Christ,  and  oftener,  when  Presbyteries  are 
mixed.  Is  it  not  most  unreasonable,  stupid  indolence  in 
us,  to  join  with  such  as  are  avowedly  tearing  us  in  pieces 
like  beasts  of  prey? 

Again,  is  not  the  continuance  of  union  with  our  protest- 
ine  brethren  very  absurd,  when  it  is  so  notorious  that  both 
their  doctrine  and  practice  are  so  directly  contrary  to  the 
adopting  act,  whereby  both  they  and  we  have  adopted  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  Catechisms  and  Directory,  composed 
by  the  Westminster  Assembly  ? 

Finally,  is  not  continuance  of  unioil  absurd  with  those 
who  would  arrogate  to  themselves  a  right  and  power  to 
palm  and  obtrude  members  on  our  Synod,  contrary  to  the 
minds  and  judgment  of  the  body? 

In  fine,  a  continued  union,  in  our  judgment,  is  most 
absurd  and  inconsistent,  when  it  is  so  notorious,  that  our 
doctrine  and  principles  of  church  government,  in  many 
points,  are  not  only  diverse,  but  directly  opposite.  For 
how  can  two  walk  together,  except  they  be  agreed  ? 

Reverend  Fathers  and  Brethren,  these  are  a  part,  and 
but  a  part,  of  our  reasons  why  we  protest  as  above,  and 
which  we  have  only  hinted  at,  but  have  forborne  to  en- 
large on  them,  as  we  might,  the  matter  and  substance  of 
them  are  so  well  known  to  you  all,  and  the  whole  world 
about  us,  that  we  judged  this  hint  sufficient  at  present,  to 
declare  our  serious  and  dehberate  judgment  in  the  mat- 
ter; and  as  we  profess  ourselves  to  be  resolvedly  against 
principles  and  practice  of  both  anarchy  and  schism,  so  we 
hope  that  God,  whom  we  desire  to  serve  and  obey,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whose  ministers  we  are,  will  both  direct 
and  enable  us  to  conduct  ourselves,  in  these  trying  times, 
so  as  our  consciences  shall  not  reproach  us  as  long  as  we 
live.  Let  God  arise,  and  let  his  enemies  be  scattered,  and 
let  them  that  hate  him  fly  before  him,  but  let  the  righteous 
be  glad,  yea,  let  them  exceedingly  rejoice.  And  may  the 
Spirit  of  Hfe  and  comfort  revive  and   comfort  this  poor 


THE  PROTESTATION,  17 4I.  34 1 

swooning  and  fainting  church,  quicken  her  to  spiritual  hfe, 
and  restore  her  to  the  exercise  of  true  charity,  peace,  and 
order. 

Although  we  can  freely,  and  from  the  bottom  of  our 
hearts,  justify  the  Divine  proceedings  against  us,  in  suffer- 
ing us  to  fall  into  these  confusions  for  our  sins,  and  par- 
ticularly for  the  great  decay  of  the  life  and  power  of  god- 
liness among  all  ranks,  both  ministers  and  people,  yet  we 
think  it  to  be  our  present  duty  to  bear  testimony  against 
these  prevailing  disorders,  judging  that  to  give  way  to  the 
breaking  down  the  hedge  of  discipline  and  government 
from  about  Christ's  vineyard,  is  far  from  being  the  proper 
method  of  causing  his  tender  plants  to  grow  in  grace  and 
fruitfulness. 

As  it  is  our  duty  in  our  station,  without  delay,  to  set 
about  a  reformation  of  the  evils  whereby  we  have  pro- 
voked God  against  ourselves,  so  we  judge  the  strict  obser- 
vation of  his  laws  of  government  and  order,  and  not  the 
breaking  of  them,  to  be  one  necessary  mean  and  method 
of  this  necessary  and  much  to  be  desired  reformation. 
And  we  doubt  not,  but  when  our  God  sees  us  duly  hum- 
bled and  penitent  for  our  sins,  he  will  yet  return  to  us  in 
mercy,  and  cause  us  to  flourish  in  spiritual  life,  love,  unity, 
and  order,  though  perhaps  we  may  not  live  to  see  it,  yet 
this  testimony  that  we  now  bear,  may  be  of  some  good 
use  to  our  children  yet  unborn,  when  God  shall  arise  and 
have  mercy  on  Zion. 

Ministers :  Robert  Cross,  John  Thomson,  Francis  Alison, 
Robert  Cathcart,  Richard  Zanchy,  John  Elder,  John  Craig, 
Samuel  Caven,  Samuel  Thomson,  Adam  Boyd,  James  Mar- 
tin, Robert  Jamison. 

Elders :  Robert  Porter,  Robert  McKnight,  William 
McCulloch,  John  McEuen,  Robert  Rowland,  Robert 
Craig,  James  Kerr,  Alexander  McKnight. 


342  APPENDIX. 


VII.    THE    PLAN    OF    UNION    OF    1 758. 

The  Synods  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  taking  into 
serious  consideration  the  present  divided  state  of  the  Pres- 
byterian church  in  this  land,  and  being  deeply  sensible 
that  the  division  of  the  church  tends  to  weaken  its  inter- 
ests, to  dishonour  religion,  and  consequently  its  glorious 
Author;  to  render  government  and  discipline  ineffectual, 
and  finally  to  dissolve  its  very  frame ;  and  being  desirous 
to  pursue  such  measures  as  may  most  tend  to  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  establishment  and  edification  of  his  peo- 
ple, do  judge  it  to  be  our  indispensable  duty  to  study  the 
things  that  make  for  peace,  and  to  endeavour  the  healing 
of  that  breach  which  has  for  some  time  subsisted  amongst 
us,  that  so  its  hurtful  consequences  may  not  extend  to 
posterity ;  that  all  occasion  of  reproach  upon  our  society 
may  be  removed,  and  that  we  may  carry  on  the  great  de- 
signs of  religion  to  better  advantage  than  we  can  do  in  a 
divided  state ;  and  since  both  Synods  continue  to  profess 
the  same  principles  of  faith,  and  adhere  to  the  same  form 
of  worship,  government,  and  discipline,  there  is  the  greater 
reason  to  endeavour  the  compromising  those  differences, 
which  were  agitated  many  years  ago  with  too  great  warmth 
and  animosity,  and  unite  in  one  body. 

For  which  end,  and  that  no  jealousies  or  grounds  of 
alienation  may  remain,  and  also  to  prevent  future  breaches 
of  like  nature,  we  agree  to  unite  and  do  unite  in  one  body, 
under  the  name  of  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, on  the  following  plan. 

I.  Both  Synods  having  always  approved  and  received 
the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  and  Larger  and 
Shorter  Catechisms,  as  an  orthodox  and  excellent  system 
of  Christian  doctrine,  founded  on  the  word  of  God,  we  do 
still  receive  the  same  as  the  confession  of  our  faith,  and 
also  adhere  to  the  plan  of  worship,  government,  and  dis- 
cipline, contained  in  the  Westminster  Directory,  strictly 
enjoining  it  on  all  our  members  and  probationers  for  the 


THE  PLAN  OF   UNION,  175S.  343 

ministry,  that  they  preach  and  teach  according  to  the 
form  of  sound  words  in  said  Confession  and  Catechisms, 
and  avoid  and  oppose  all  errors  contrary  thereto. 

II.  That  when  any  matter  is  determined  by  a  major 
vote,  every  member  shall  either  actively  concur  with,  or 
passively  submit  to  such  determination ;  or,  if  his  con- 
science permit  him  to  do  neither,  he  shall,  after  sufficient 
liberty  modestly  to  reason  and  remonstrate,  peaceably 
withdraw  from  our  communion  without  attempting  to 
make  any  schism.  Provided  always,  that  this  shall  be 
understood  to  extend  only  to  such  determinations  as  the 
body  shall  judge  indispensable  in  doctrine  or  Presbyterian 
government. 

III.  That  any  member  or  members,  for  the  exonera- 
tion of  his  or  their  conscience  before  God,  have  a  right  to 
protest  against  any  act  or  procedure  of  our  highest  judi- 
cature, because  there  is  no  further  appeal  to  another  for 
redress ;  and  to  require  that  such  protestation  be  recorded 
in  their  minutes.  And  as  such  a  protest  is  a  solemn  ap- 
peal from  the  bar  of  said  judicature,  no  member  is  liable 
to  prosecution  on  the  account  of  his  protesting.  Provided 
always,  that  it  shall  be  deemed  irregular  and  unlawful,  to 
enter  a  protestation  against  any  member  or  members,  or 
to  protest  facts  or  accusations  instead  of  proving  them,, 
unless  a  fair  trial  be  refused,  even  by  the  highest  judica-^ 
ture.  And  it  is  agreed,  that  protestations  are  only  to  be- 
entered  against  the  public  acts,  judgments,  or  determina- 
tions of  the  judicature  with  which  the  protester's  con- 
science is  offended. 

IV.  As  the  Protestation  entered  in  the  Synod  of  Phila- 
delphia, Ann.  Doni.  1741,  has  been  apprehended  to  have 
been  approved  and  received  by  an  act  of  said  Synod,  and 
on  that  account  was  judged  a  sufficient  obstacle  to  an 
union ;  the  said  Synod  declare,  that  they  never  judicially 
adopted  the  said  Protestation,  nor  do  account  it  a  Synod- 
ical  act,  but  that  it  is  to  be  considered  as  the  act  of  those 
only  who  subscribed  it ;  and  therefore  cannot  in  its  nature 
be  a  vahd  objection  to  the  union  of  the  two  Synods,  espe- 


344  APPENDIX. 

cially  considering  that  a  very  great  majority  of  both  Synods 
have  become  members,  since  the  said  Protestation  was 
entered. 

V.  That  it  shall  be  esteemed  and  treated  as  a  censurable 
evil,  to  accuse  any  member  of  heterodoxy,  insufficiency,  or 
immorality,  in  a  calumniating  manner,  or  otherwise  than 
by  private  brotherly  admonition,  or  by  a  regular  process 
according  to  our  known  rules  of  judicial  trial  in  cases  of 
scandal.  And  it  shall  be  considered  in  the  same  view,  if 
any  Presbytery  appoint  supplies  within  the  bounds  of 
another  Presbytery  without  their  concurrence ;  or  if  any 
member  officiate  in  another's  congregation,  without  ask- 
ing and  obtaining  his  consent,  or  the  session's  in  case  the 
minister  be  absent;  yet  it  shall  be  esteemed  unbrotherly 
for  any  one,  in  ordinary  circumstances,  to  refuse  his  con- 
sent to  a  regular  member  when  it  is  requested. 

VI.  That  no  Presbytery  shall  Hcense  or  ordain  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  any  candidate,  until  he  give  them 
competent  satisfaction  as  to  his  learning,  and  experimental 
acquaintance  with  religion,  and  skill  in  divinity  and  cases 
of  conscience ;  and  declare  his  acceptance  of  the  West- 
minster Confession  and  Catechisms  as  the  confession  of 
his  faith,  and  promise  subjection  to  the  Presbyterian  plan 
of  government  in  the  Westminster  Directory. 

VII.  The  Synods  declare  it  is  their  earnest  desire,  that 
a  complete  union  may  be  obtained  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
agree  that  the  united  Synod  shall  model  the  several  Pres- 
byteries in  such  manner  as  shall  appear  to  them  most  ex- 
pedient. Provided  nevertheless,  that  Presbyteries,  where 
an  alteration  does  not  appear  to  be  for  edification,  continue 
in  their  present  form.  As  to  divided  congregations  it  is 
agreed,  that  such  as  have  settled  ministers  on  both  sides 
be  allowed  to  continue  as  they  are ;  that  where  those  of 
one  side  have  a  settled  minister,  the  other  being  vacant, 
may  join  with  the  settled  minister,  if  a  majority  choose  so 
to  do  ;  that  when  both  sides  are  vacant  they  shall  be  at 
liberty  to  unite  together, 

VIII.  As  the  late  religious  appearances  occasioned  much 


THE   PLAN  OF   UNION,  1758.  345 

speculation  and  debate,  the  members  of  the  New  York 
Synod,  in  order  to  prevent  any  misapprehensions,  declare 
their  adherence  to  their  former  sentiments  in  favour  of 
them,  that  a  blessed  work  of  God's  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
conversion  of  numbers  was  then  carried  on ;  and  for  the 
satisfaction  of  all  concerned,  this  united  Synod  agree  in 
declaring,  that  as  all  mankind  are  naturally  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins  an  entire  change  of  heart  and  life  is  neces- 
sary to  make  them  meet  for  the  service  and  enjoyment  of 
God;  that  such  a  change  can  be  only  effected  by  the 
powerful  operations  of  the  Divine  Spirit ;  that  when  sin- 
ners are  made  sensible  of  their  lost  condition  and  abso- 
lute inability  to  recover  themselves,  are  enlightened  in 
the  knowledge  of  Christ  and  convinced  of  his  ability  and 
willingness  to  save,  and  upon  gospel  encouragements  do 
choose  him  for  their  Saviour,  and  renouncing  their  own 
righteousness  in  point  of  merit,  depend  upon  his  imputed 
righteousness  for  their  justification  before  God,  and  on 
his  wisdom  and  strength  for  guidance  and  support;  when 
upon  these  apprehensions  and  exercises  their  souls  are 
comforted,  notwithstanding  all  their  past  guilt,  and  re- 
joice in  God  through  Jesus  Christ;  when  they  hate  and 
bewail  their  sins  of  heart  and  life,  delight  in  the  laws  of 
God  without  exception,  reverently  and  diligently  attend 
his  ordinances,  become  humble  and  self  denied,  and  make 
it  the  business  of  their  lives  to  please  and  glorify  God  and 
to  do  good  to  their  fellow  men ;  this  is  to  be  acknowl- 
edged as  a  gracious  work  of  God,  even  though  it  should 
be  attended  with  unusual  bodily  commotions  or  some 
more  exceptionable  circumstances,  by  means  of  infirmity, 
temptations,  or  remaining  corruptions ;  and  wherever  re- 
ligious appearances  are  attended  with  the  good  effects 
above  mentioned,  we  desire  to  rejoice  in  and  thank  God 
for  them. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  when  persons  seeming  to  be 
under  a  religious  concern,  imagine  that  they  have  visions 
of  the  human  nature  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  hear  voices,  or  see 
external  lights,  or  have  fainting  and  convulsion-like  fits, 


346  APPENDIX. 

and  on  the  account  of  these  judge  themselves  to  be  truly 
converted,  though  they  have  not  the  Scriptural  characters 
of  a  work  of  God  above  described,  we  believe  such  persons 
are  under  a  dangerous  delusion.  And  we  testify  our  utter 
disapprobation  of  such  a  delusion,  wherever  it  attends  any 
religious  appearances,  in  any  church  or  time. 

Now  as  both  Synods  are  agreed  in  their  sentiments  con- 
cerning the  nature  of  a  work  of  grace,  and  declare  their 
desire  and  purpose  to  promote  it,  different  judgments  re- 
specting particular  matters  of  fact,  ought  not  to  prevent 
their  union ;  especially  as  many  of  the  present  members 
have  entered  into  the  ministry  since  the  time  of  the  afore- 
said religious  appearances. 

Upon  the  whole,  as  the  design  of  our  union  is  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  Mediator's  kingdom ;  and  as  the  wise 
and  faithful  discharge  of  the  ministerial  function  is  the 
principal  appointed  mean  for  that  glorious  end,  we  judge, 
that  this  is  a  proper  occasion  to  manifest  our  sincere  in- 
tention, unitedly  to  exert  ourselves  to  fulfil  the  ministry 
we  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Accordingly,  we 
unanimously  declare  our  serious  and  fixed  resolution,  by 
divine  aid,  to  take  heed  to  ourselves  that  our  hearts  be 
upright,  our  discourse  edifying,  and  our  lives  exemplary 
for  purity  and  godliness;  to  take  heed  to  our  doctrine, 
that  it  be  not  only  orthodox  but  evangehcal  and  spiritual, 
tending  to  awaken  the  secure  to  a  suitable  concern  for  their 
salvation,  and  to  instruct  and  encourage  sincere  Christians  ; 
thus  commending  ourselves  to  every  man's  conscience  in 
the  sight  of  God ;  to  cultivate  peace  and  harmony  among 
ourselves,  and  strengthen  each  other's  hands  in  promoting 
the  knowledge  of  divine  truth,  and  diffusing  the  savour  of 
piety  among  our  people. 

Finally  we  earnestly  recommend  it  to  all  under  our 
care,  that  instead  of  indulging  a  contentious  disposition, 
they  would  love  each  other  with  a  pure  heart  fervently,  as 
brethren  who  profess  subjection  to  the  same  Lord,  adhere 
to  the  same  faith,  worship,  and  government,  and  entertain 
the  same  hope  of  glory.      And  we  desire  that  they  would 


THE  BASIS   OF   UNION,  1782.  347 

improve  the  present  union  for  their  mutual  edification, 
combine  to  strengthen  the  common  interests  of  religion, 
and  go  hand  in  hand  in  the  path  of  life  ;  which  we  pray 
the  God  of  all  grace  would  please  to  effect,  for  Christ's 
sake.      Amen. 

The  Synod  agree,  that  all  former  differences  and  dis- 
putes are  laid  aside  and  buried ;  and  that  no  future  inquir}^ 
or  vote  shall  be  proposed  in  this  Synod  concerning  these 
things;  but  if  any  member  seek  a  Synodical  inquiry,  or 
declaration  about  any  of  the  matters  of  our  past  differences, 
it  shall  be  deemed  a  censurable  breach  of  this  agreement, 
and  be  refused,  and  he  be  rebuked  accordingly. 

VIII.    THE    BASIS    OF    UNION    OF    1 782,  ON    WHICH    THE 
ASSOCIATE    REFORMED    CHURCH    WAS    FORMED. 

Article  i.  Election,  redemption,  and  the  application 
thereof,  are  of  equal  extent,  and  for  the  elect  only. 

Art.  2.  Magistracy  is  derived  from  God  as  the  Almighty 
Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world,  and  not  from  Christ 
as  Mediator. 

Art.  3.  Whereas  magistracy  proceeds  from  God  as  the 
Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world,  and  the  profession  of 
the  true  religion  is  not  essential  to  the  being  of  civil  mag- 
istrates :  and  whereas  protection  and  allegiance  are  recip- 
rocal, and  as  the  United  States  of  America,  while  they 
protect  us  in  life  and  property,  at  the  same  time  do  not 
impose  any  thing  sinful  on  us,  we  therefore  judge  it  our 
duty  to  acknowledge  the  government  of  these  states,  in 
all  lawful  commands,  that  we  may  lead  quiet  and  peace- 
able lives  in  all  godliness  and  honesty. 

Art.  4.  The  above  proposition  is  not  to  be  understood 
in  an  opposite  sense  to  that  proposition  relative  to  civil 
government,  on  which  the  union  between  the  Associate 
Presbytery  of  New  York  and  the  Reformed  Presb5^tery 
have  agreed ;  but  only  as  a  plain  and  undisguised  explica- 
tion of  one  point  of  truth,  in  which  we  have  the  best  rea- 
son to  believe  the  whole  body  are  united. 


348  APPENDIX. 

Art.  5.  As  no  opposition  of  sentiment,  relative  to  the 
important  duty  of  covenanting,  appears  on  either  side ;  it 
is  mutually  agreed,  that  the  consideration  of  it  be  referred 
to  the  councils  and  deHberations  of  the  whole  body. 

Art.  6.  Though  no  real  or  practical  subordination  to 
the  Associate  Synod  of  Edinburgh,  in  a  consistency  with 
Presbyterian  principles,  can  be  pled,  yet  from  the  most 
wise  and  important  considerations,  the  former  connections, 
whatever  they  have  been,  shall  remain  as  before,  notwith- 
standing of  this  coalescence. 

IX.    THE    ADOPTING   ACTS    OF    1 788.. 

(i)  The  Synod  having  fully  considered  the  draught  of 
the  form  of  government  and  discipline,  did,  on  a  review 
of  the  whole,  and  hereby  do  ratify  and  adopt  the  same, 
as  now  altered  and  amended,  as  the  Constitution  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  America,  and  order  the  same  j:o 
be  considered  and  strictly  observed  as  the  rule  of  their 
proceedings,  by  all  the  inferior  judicatories,  belonging  to 
the  body.  And  they  order  that  a  correct  copy  be  printed, 
and  that  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  as  now 
altered,  be  printed  in  full  along  with  it,  as  making  a  part 
of  the  Constitution. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the 
above  ratification  by  the  Synod,  is,  that  the  Form  of  Gov- 
ernment and  Discipline  and  the  Confession  of  Faith,  as  now 
ratified,  is  to  continue  to  be  our  Constitution  and  the  con- 
fession of  our  faith  and  practice  unalterable,  unless  two- 
thirds  of  the  Presbyteries  under  the  care  of  the  General 
Assembly  shall  propose  alterations  or  amendments,  and 
such  alterations  or  amendments  shall  be  agreed  to  and 
enacted  by  the  General  Assembly. 

(2)  The  Synod  having  now  revised  and  corrected  the 
draught  of  a  Directory  for  worship,  did  approve  and  ratify 
the  same,  and  do  hereby  appoint  the  said  Directory,  as 
now  amended,  to  be  the  Directory  for  the  worship  of  God 
in  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 


THE  ADOPTING  ACT,  1788.  349 

ica.  They  also  took  into  consideration  the  Westminster 
Larger  and  Shorter  Catechisms,  and  having  made  a  small 
amendment  of  the  Larger,  did  approve,  and  do  hereby  ap- 
prove and  ratify  the  said  Catechisms,  as  now  agreed  on, 
as  the  Catechisms  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  said 
United  States.  And  the  Synod  order,  that  the  said  Direc- 
tory and  Catechisms  be  printed  and  bound  up  in  the  same 
volume  with  the  Confession  of  Faith  and  the  Form  of 
Government  and  Discipline,  and  that  the  whole  be  con- 
sidered as  the  standard  of  our  doctrine,  government,  dis- 
cipline, and  worship,  agreeably  to  the  resolutions  of  the 
Synod  at  their  present  sessions. 

ORDERED,  That  Dr.  Duffield,  Mr.  Armstrong  and  Mr. 
Green,  be  a  committee  to  superintend  the  printing  and 
publishing  the  above  said  Confession  of  Faith  and  Cate- 
chisms, with  the  Form  of  Government  and  Disciphne,  and 
the  Directory  for  the  Worship  of  God,  as  now  adopted  and 
ratified  by  the  Synod,  as  the  Constitution  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  and  that 
they  divide  the  several  parts  into  chapters  and  sections 
properly  numbered. 

[A  different  and  somewhat  fuller  version  of  the  two  first 
paragraphs  of  the  Adopting  Act  was  found  by  Judge 
Drake,  in  1870,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  **  Acts  and  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  A.D. 
1787  and  I  788  "'(Philadelphia,  1788),  viz.  : 

"The  Synod  took  into  consideration  the  Draught  of  the 
Form  of  Government  and  Discipline  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America — And  having  gone 
through  the  same,  did,  on  a  review  of  the  whole,  ratify 
and  adopt  the  said  Form  of  Government  and  Discipline,  as 
now  altered  and  amended,  as  the  Constitution  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  Discipline  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
America.  And  recommend  to  all  their  inferior  judicatures, 
strictly  to  observe  the  rules  laid  down  therein,  in  all  eccle- 
siastical proceedings.  And  they  order,  that  a  correct  copy 
be  printed ;  and  that  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith^ 


350  APPENDIX. 

as  now  altered,  be  printed  in  full  along  with  it,  as  making 
part  of  the  Constitution. 

'*  Resolved  that  the  true  meaning  of  the  above  ratification 
by  the  Synod,  is,  that  the  Form  of  Government  and  Disci- 
pline, and  Confession  of  Faith,  as  now  ratified,  is  to  continue 
to  be  our  Constitution,  and  the  Confession  of  our  Faith 
and  Practice,  unalterably  ;  unless  two  thirds  of  the  Presby- 
teries, under  the  care  of  the  General  Assembly,  shall  pro- 
pose alterations  or  amendments ;  and  such  alterations  and 
amendments  shall  be  agreed  to,  and  enacted  by  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly."] 

X.   THE    DECLARATION    OF    PRINCIPLES    OF    1 788. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, in  presenting  to  the  Christian  public  the  system  of 
union  and  the  form  of  government  and  discipline  which 
they  have  adopted,  have  thought  proper  to  state,  by  way 
of  introduction,  a  few  of  the  general  principles  by  which 
they  have  been  governed  in  the  formation  of  the  plan. 
This,  it  is  hoped,  will,  in  some  measure,  prevent  those  rash 
misconstructions  and  uncandid  reflections  which  usually 
proceed  from  an  imperfect  view  of  any  subject,  as  well  as 
make  the  several  parts  of  the  system  plain  and  the  whole 
perspicuous  and  fully  understood. 

They  are  unanimously  of  opinion : 

I.  That  '*  God  alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience,  and  hath 
left  it  free  from  the  doctrines  and  commandments  of  men, 
which  are  in  any  thing  contrary  to  his  word,  or  beside  it 
in  matters  of  faith  or  worship":  therefore  they  consider 
the  right  of  private  judgment,  in  all  matters  that  respect 
religion,  as  universal  and  unalienable ;  they  do  not  even 
wish  to  see  any  religious  constitution  aided  by  the  civil 
power,  further  than  may  be  necessary  for  protection  and 
security,  and,  at  the  same  time,  be  equal  and  comrnon  to 
all  others. 

II.  That,  in  perfect  consistency  with  the  above  prin- 
ciple of  common  right,  every  Christian  church,  or  union, 


DECLARATION  OF  FKINCIPLES,  178S.  351 

or  association  of  particular  churches,  is  entitled  to  declare 
the  terms  of  admission  into  its  coniiniLnioii,  and  the  qualifi- 
cations of  its  ministers  and  members,  as  well  as  the  whole 
system  of  its  internal  government  which  Christ  hath  ap- 
pointed ;  that  in  the  exercise  of  this  right,  they  may,  not- 
withstanding, err  in  making  the  terms  of  communion  either 
too  lax  or  too  narrow ;  yet  even  in  this  case  they  do  not 
infringe  upon  the  liberty  or  the  rights  of  others,  but  only 
make  an  improper  use  of  their  own. 

III.  That  our  blessed  Saviour,  for  the  edification  of  the 
visible  Church,  which  is  his  body,  hath  appointed  officers, 
not  only  to  preach  the  Gospel  and  administer  the  sacra- 
ments, but  also  to  exercise  discipline  for  the  preservation 
both  of  truth  and  duty ;  and  that  it  is  incumbent  upon 
these  officers  and  upon  the  whole  Church  in  whose  names 
they  act,  to  censure  or  cast  out  the  erroneous  and  scandal- 
ous ;  observing  in  all  cases  the  rules  contained  in  the  word 
of  God. 

IV.  That  truth  is  in  order  to  goodness,  and  the  great 
touchstone  of  truth,  its  tendency  to  promote  holiness ; 
according  to  our  Saviour's  rule,  '*  by  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them."  And  that  no  opinion  can  be  either  more 
pernicious  or  absurd  than  that  which  brings  truth  and 
falsehood  upon  a  level,  and  represents  it  as  of  no  conse- 
quence what  a  man's  opinions  are.  On  the  contrary,  they 
are  persuaded  that  there  is  an  inseparable  connection  be- 
tween faith  and  practice,  truth  and  duty.  Otherwise  it 
would  be  of  no  consequence  either  to  discover  truth  or  to 
embrace  it. 

V.  That  while,  under  the  conviction  of  the  above  prin- 
ciple, they  think  it  necessary  to  make  effectual  provisions 
that  all  who  are  admitted  as  teachers  be  sound  in  the  faith, 
they  also  believe  that  there  are  truths  and  forms  with  re- 
spect to  which  men  of  good  characters  and  principles  may 
differ.  ^  And,  in  all  these,  they  think  it  the  duty,  both  of 
private  Christians  and  societies,  to  exercise  mutual  for- 
bearance toward  each  other. 

VI.  That    though    the    character,    qualifications    and 


352  APPENDIX. 

authority,  of  church  officers  are  laid  down  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  as  well  as  the  proper  method  of  their  investi- 
ture and  institution,  yet  the  election  of  the  persons  to  the 
exercise  of  this  authority,  in  any  particular  society,  is  in 
that  society. 

VII.  That  all  church-power,  whether  exercised  by  the 
body  in  general,  or  in  the  way  of  representation  by  dele- 
gated authority,  is  only  ministerial  and  declarative :  tJiat  is 
to  saj\  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  the  only  rule  of  faith 
and  manners;  that  no  church  judicatory  ought  to  pretend 
to  make  laws  to  bind  the  conscience  in  virtue  of  their  own 
authority,  and  that  all  their  decisions  should  be  founded 
upon  the  revealed  will  of  God.  Now,  though  it  will  easily 
be  admitted  that  all  synods  and  councils  may  err,  through 
the  frailty  inseparable  from  humanity,  yet  there  is  much 
greater  danger  from  the  usurped  claim  of  making  laws 
than  from  the  right  of  judging  upon  laws  already  made 
and  common  to  all  who  profess  the  Gospel,  although  this 
right,  as  necessity  requires  in  the  present  state,  be  lodged 
with  fallible  man. 

VHI.  Lastly,  That  if  the  preceding  scriptural  and  ra- 
tional principles  be  steadfastly  adhered  to,  the  vigor  and 
strictness  of  its  discipline  will  contribute  to  the  glory  and 
happiness  of  any  Church.  Since  ecclesiastical  discipHne 
must  be  purely  moral  or  spiritual  in  its  object,  and  not  at- 
tended with  any  civil  effects,  it  can  derive  no  force  what- 
ever, but  from  its  own  justice,  the  approbation  of  an 
impartial  public,  and  the  countenance  and  blessing  of  the 
Great  Head  of  the  Church  Universal. 


XI.  THE  TERMS  OF  SUBSCRIPTION  REQUIRED  OF  CAN- 
DIDATES FOR  ORDINATION  IN  THE  PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH    SINCE    1 788. 

I.  Do  you  believe  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  to  be  the  word  of  God,  the  only  infallible  rule 
of  faith  and  practice? 


THE   PLAN  OF   CX/OiV,  1801.  353 

2.  Do  you  sincerely  receive  and  adopt  the  Confession 
of  Faith  of  this  Church  as  containing  the  system  of  doc- 
trine taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures? 

3.  Do  you  approve  of  the  government  and  discipline  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  these  United  States? 

4.  Do  you  promise  subjection  to  your  brethren  in  the 
Lord? 

5.  Have  you  been  induced,  as  far  as  you  know  your 
own  heart,  to  seek  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry  from 
love  to  God,  and  a  sincere  desire  to  promote  his  glory  in 
the  gospel  of  his  Son  ? 

6.  Do  you  promise  to  be  zealous  and  faithful  in  main- 
taining the  truths  of  the  gospel  and  the  purity  and  peace 
of  the  Church,  whatever  persecution  or  opposition  may 
arise  unto  you  on  that  account? 

7.  Do  you  engage  to  be  faithful  and  diligent  in  the 
exercise  of  all  private  and  personal  duties  which  become 
you  as  a  Christian  and  a  mrnister  of  the  gospel,  as  well  as 
in  all  relative  duties  and  the  public-  duties  of  your  office, 
endeavoring  to  adorn  the  profession  of  the  gospel  by 
your  conversation,  and  walking  with  exemplary  piety  be- 
fore the  flock  over  which  God  shall  make  you  overseer? 

8.  Are  you  now  willing  to  take  the  charge  of  this  con- 
gregation, agreeably  to  your  declaration  at  accepting  their 
call?  And  do  you  promise  to  discharge  the  duties  of  a 
pastor  to  them  as  God  shall  give  you  strength? 


XII.    THE    PLAN    OF    UNION    OF    180I. 

Regulations  adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  America,  and  by  the  General  As- 
sociation of  the  State  of  Connecticut  with  a  view  to  pre- 
vent alienation  and  promote  union  and  harmony,  in  those 
new  settlements  which  are  composed  of  inhabitants  from 
those  bodies. 

1st.  It  is  strictly  enjoined  on  all  their  missionaries  to 
the  new  settlements,  to  endeavor  by  all  proper  means,  to 


354  APPENDIX. 

promote  mutual  forbearance  and  accommodation,  between 
those  inhabitants  of  the  new  settlements  who  hold  the 
Presbyterian,  and  those  who  hold  the  Congregational  form 
of  Church  government. 

2d.  If  in  the  new  settlements,  any  Church  of  the  Con- 
gregational order,  shall  settle  a  minister  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian order,  that  Church  may,  if  they  choose,  still  conduct 
their  discipline  according  to  Congregational  principles,  set- 
tling their  difficulties  among  themselves,  or  by  a  council 
mutually  agreed  upon  for  that  purpose.  But  if  any  diffi- 
culty shall  exist  between  the  minister  and  the  Church  or 
any  member  of  it,  it  shall  be  referred  to  the  Presbytery 
to  which  the  minister  shall  belong,  provided  both  parties 
agree  to  it ;  if  not,  to  a  council  consisting  of  an  equal 
number  of  Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists,  agreed 
upon  by  both  parties. 

3d.  If  a  Presbyterian  Church  shall  settle  a  minister  of 
Congregational  principles,  that  Church  may  still  conduct 
their  discipline  according  to  Presbyterian  principles ;  ex- 
cepting that  if  a  difficult}^  arise  between  him  and  his 
Church,  or  any  member  of  it,  the  cause  shall  be  tried  by 
the  Association  to  which  the  said  minister  shall  belong, 
provided  both  parties  agree  to  it;  otherwise  by  a  council, 
one  half  Congregationalists  and  the  other  half  Presbyte- 
rians, mutually  agreed  on  by  the  parties. 

4th.  If  any  congregation  consist  partly  of  those  who 
hold  the  Congregational  form  of  discipline,  and  partly  of 
those  who  hold  the  Presbyterian  form,  we  recommend  to 
both  parties,  that  this  be  no  obstruction  to  their  uniting  in 
one  church  and  settling  a  minister;  and  that,  in  this  case, 
the  Church  choose  a  standing  committee  from  the  com- 
municants of  said  church,  whose  business  it  shall  be,  to 
call  to  account  every  member  of  the  church,  who  shall 
conduct  himself  inconsistently  with  the  laws  of  Christian- 
ity, and  to  give  judgment  on  such  conduct ;  and  if  the 
person  condemned  by  their  judgment  be  a  Presbyterian, 
he  shall  have  liberty  to  appeal  to  the  Presbytery ;  if  a 
Congregationalist,  he  shall  have  liberty  to  appeal  to  the 


THE  EXSCIXDIXG  ACTS,  1837.  355 

body  of  the  male  communicants  of  the  church ;  in  the 
former  case,  the  determination  of  the  Presbytery  shall  be 
final,  unless  the  Church  consent  to  a  further  appeal  to  the 
Synod,  or  tothe  General  Assembly  ;  and  in  the  latter  case, 
if  the  party  condemned  shall  wish  for  a  trieil  by  a  mutual 
council,  the  cause  shall  be  referred  to  such  council.  And 
provided  the  said  standing  committee  of  any  church  shall 
depute  one  of  themselves  to  attend  the  Presbytery,  he 
may  have  the  same  right  to  sit  and  act  in  the  Presbytery, 
as  a  ruling  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

On  motion,  RESOLVED,  That  an  attested  copy  of  the 
above  Plan  be  made  by  the  stated  clerk,  and  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  delegates  of.  this  Assembly  to  the  General 
Association,  to  be  by  them  laid  before  that  body  for  their 
consideration ;  and  that  if  it  should  be  approved  by  them, 
it  go  into  immediate  operation. 


XIII.    THE    EXSCINDING   ACTS    OF    1837. 

{a)  Resolutions  as  to  Relations  existing  betiveen  the  Pres- 
byterian and  Congregational  CJiurcJies. 

1.  ''That  between  these  two  branches  of  the  American 
Church,  there  ought,  in  the  judgment  of  this  Assembly,  to 
be  maintained  sentiments  of  mutual  respect  and  esteem, 
and  for  that  purpose  no  reasonable  efforts  should  be 
omitted  to  preserve  a  perfectly  good  understanding  be- 
tween these  branches  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

2.  **  That  it  is  expedient  to  continue  the  plan  of  friendly 
intercourse  between  this  Church  and  the  Congregational 
Churches  of  New  England,  as  it  now  exists. 

3.  "  But  as  the  *  Plan  of  Union  '  adopted  for  the  new 
settlements,  in  1 801,  was  originally  an  unconstitutional 
act  on  the  part  of  that  Assembly — these  important  stand- 
ing rules  having  never  been  submitted  to  the  Presbyteries 
— and  as  they  were  totally  destitute  of  authority  as  pro- 
ceeding from  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut,  which 


356  APPENDIX. 

is  invested  with  no  power  to  legislate  in  such  cases,  and 
especially  to  enact  laws  to  regulate  churches  not  within 
her  limits;  and  as  much  confusion  and  irregularity  have 
arisen  from  this  unnatural  and  unconstitutional  system  of 
union,  therefore,  it  is  resolved,  that  the  Act  of  the  Assem- 
bly of  1 80 1,  entitled  a  *  Plan  of  Union,'  be,  and  the  same 
is  hereby  abrogated." 


(U)  Excision  of  the  Plan-of-Union  Synods. 

"  Resolved,  That  by  the  operation  of  the  abrogation  of 
the  Plan  of  Union  of  1801,  the  Synod  of  the  Western 
Reserve  is,  and  is  hereby  declared  to  be,  no  longer  a  part 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America." 


"(i)  Resolved,  That  in  consequence  of  the  abrogation 
by  this  Assembly  of  the  Plan  of  Union  of  1801,  between 
it  and  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut,  as  utterly 
unconstitutional,  and  therefore  null  and  void  from  the 
beginning,  the  Synods  of  Utica,  Geneva,  and  Genesee, 
which  were  formed  and  attached  to  this  body  under  and 
in  execution  of  said  '  Plan  of  Union,'  be,  and  are  hereby 
declared  to  be  out  of  the  ecclesiastical  connection  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
that  they  are  not  in  form  and  in  fact  an  integral  portion 
of  said  Church. 

"  (2)  That  the  solicitude  of  this  Assembly  on  the  whole 
subject,  and  its  urgency  for  the  immediate  decision  of  it, 
are  greatly  increased  by  reason  of  the  gross  disorders 
which  are  ascertained  to  have  prevailed  in  those  Synods, 
(as  well  as  that  of  the  Western  Reserve,  against  which  a 
declarative  resolution,  similar  to  the  first  of  these,  has 
been  passed  during  our  present  sessions,)  it  being  made 
clear  to  us,  that  even  the  Plan  of  Union  itself  was  never 
consistently  carried  into  effect  by  those  professing  to  act 
under  it. 


The  auburn  declaration,  issr.  357 

"  (3)  That  the  General  Assembly  has  no  intention,  by 
these  resolutions,  or  by  that  passed  in  the  case  of  the 
Synod  of  the  Western  Reserve,  to  affect  in  any  way  the 
ministerial  standing  of  any  members  of  either  of  said 
Synods ;  nor  to  disturb  the  pastoral  relation  in  any 
Church ;  nor  to  interfere  with  the  duties  or  relations  of 
private  Christians  in  their  respective  congregations ;  but 
only  to  declare  and  determine,  according  to  the  truth  and 
necessity  of  the  case,  and  by  virtue  of  the  full  authority 
existing  in  it  for  that  purpose,  the  relation  of  all  said 
Synods,  and  all  their  constituent  parts  to  this  body,  and 
to  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States. 

*'  (4)  That  inasmuch  as  there  are  reported  to  be  several 
churches  and  ministers,  if  not  one  or  two  Presbyteries,  now 
in  connection  with  one  or  more  of  said  Synods,  which  are 
strictly  Presbyterian  in  doctrine  and  order,  be  it,  there- 
fore, further  resolved  that  all  such  churches  and  ministers 
as  wish  to  unite  with  us,  are  hereby  directed  to  apply  for 
admission  into  those  Presbyteries  belonging  to  our  connec- 
tion which  are  most  convenient  to  their  respective  loca- 
tions; and  that  any  such  Presbytery  as  aforesaid,  being 
strictly  Presbyterian  in  doctrine  and  order,  and  now  in 
connection  with  either  of  said  Synods,  as  may  desire  to 
unite  with  us,  are  hereby  directed  to  make  application, 
with  a  full  statement  of  their  cases,  to  the  next  General 
Assembly,  which  will  take  proper  order  thereon." 

XIV.  THE  AUBURN  DECLARATION  OF  1 83  7,  STATING 
THE  "  TRUE  DOCTRINES  "  OF  THE  NEW-SCHOOL 
MEN  OVER  AGAINST  THE  '*  ERRORS  "  CHARGED  ON 
THEM  IN  THE  OLD-SCHOOL  MEMORIAL  OF  THAT 
YEAR. 

FIRST  ERROR.  ''That  God  would  have  prevented 
the  existence  of  sin  in  our  world,  but  was  not  able,  with- 
out destroying  the  moral  agency  of  man ;  or,  that  for 
aught  that  appears  in  the  Bible  to  the  contrary,  sin  is  in- 
cidental to  any  wise  moral  system." 


35  S  APPENDIX. 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  God  permitted  the  introduction 
of  sin,  not  because  he  was  unable  to  prevent  it,  consistently 
with  the  moral  freedom  of  his  creatures,  but  for  wise  and 
benevolent  reasons  which  he  has  not  revealed. 

SECOND  ERROR.  ''That  election  to  eternal  life  is 
founded  on  a  foresight  of  faith  and  obedience." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  Election  to  eternal  life  is  not 
founded  on  a  foresight  of  faith  and  obedience,  but  is  a 
sovereign  act  of  God's  mercy,  whereby,  according  to  the 
counsel  of  his  own  will,  he  has  chosen  some  to  salvation ; 
"  yet  so  as  thereby  neither  is  violence  offered  to  the  will 
of  the  creatures,  nor  is  the  liberty  or  contingency  of  second 
causes  taken  away,  but  rather  established;"  nor  does  this 
gracious  purpose  ever  take  effect  independently  of  faith 
and  a  holy  life. 

THIRD  ERROR.  "That  we  have  no  more  to  do  with 
the  first  sin  of  Adam  than  with  "the  sins  of  any  other 
parent." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  By  a  divine  constitution,  Adam 
was  so  the  head  and  representative  of  the  race,  that,  as 
a  consequence  of  his  transgression,  all  mankind  become 
morally  corrupt,  and  Hable  to  death,  temporal  and  eternal. 

FOURTH  ERROR.  "  That  infants  come  into  the  world 
as  free  from  moral  defilement  as  was  Adam  when  he  was 
created." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  Adam  was  created  in  the  Image 
of  God,  endowed  with  knowledge,  righteousness,  and  true 
holiness.  Infants  come  Into  the  world,  not  only  destitute 
of  these,  but  with  a  nature  Inclined  to  evil  and  only  evil. 

FIFTH  ERROR.  "That  infants  sustain  the  same  re- 
lation to  the  moral  government  of  God,  In  this  world,  as 
brute  animals,  and  that  their  sufferings  and  death  are  to 
be  accounted  for  on  the  same  principles  as  those  of  brutes, 
and  not  bv  any  means  to  be  considered  as  penal." 

TRUE 'doctrine.  Brute  animals  sustain  no  such 
relation   to   the   moral   government   of   God   as   does  the 


THE  AUBURN  DECLARATION,  1837.  359 

human  family.  Infants  are  a  part  of  the  human  family ; 
and  their  sufferings  and  death  are  to  be  accounted  for  on 
the  ground  of  their  being  involved  in  the  general  moral 
ruin  of  the  race  induced  by  the  apostacy. 

SIXTH  ERROR.  "  That  there  is  no  other  original  sin 
than  the  fact,  that  all  the  posterity  of  Adam,  though  by 
nature  innocent,  will  always  begin  to  sin  v^hen  they  begin 
to  exercise  moral  agency ;  that  original  sin  does  not  in- 
clude a  sinful  bias  of  the  human  mind,  and  a  just  exposure 
to  penal  suffering;  and  that  there  is  no  evidence  in  Script- 
ure, that  infants,  in  order  to  salvation,  do  need  redemp- 
tion by  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  regeneration  by  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  Original  sin  is  a  natural  bias  to 
evil,  resulting  from  the  first  apostacy,  leading  invariably 
and  certainly  to  actual  transgression.  And  all  infants,  as 
well  as  adults,  in  order  to  be  saved,  need  redemption  by 
the  blood  of  Christ,  and  regeneration  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

SEVENTH  ERROR.  *'  That  the  doctrine  of  imputa- 
tion, whether  of  the  guilt  of  Adam's  sin,  or  of  the  right- 
eousness of  Christ,  has  no  foundation  in  the  Word  of  God, 
and  is  both  unjust  and  absurd." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  The  sin  of  Adam  is  not  imputed 
to  his  posterity  in  the  sense  of  a  literal  transfer  of  per- 
sonal qualities,  acts,  and  demerit;  but  by  reason  of  the 
sin  of  Adam,  in  his  peculiar  relation,  the  race  are  treated 
as  if  they  had  sinned.  Nor  is  the  righteousness  of  Christ 
imputed  to  his  people  in  the  sense  of  a  literal  transfer  of 
personal  qualities,  acts,  and  merit ;  but  by  reason  of  his 
righteousness,  in  his  peculiar  relation,  they  are  treated  as 
if  they  were  righteous. 

EIGHTH  ERROR.  ''That  the  sufferings  and  death  of 
Christ  were  not  truly  vicarious  and  penal,  but  symbolical, 
governmental,  and  instructive  only." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  The  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ 
were  not  symbolical,  governmental,  and  instructive  only. 


36o  APPENDIX. 

but  were  truly  vicarious,  i.e.  a  substitute  for  the  punish- 
ment due  to  transgressors.  And  while  Christ  did  not 
suffer  the  literal  penalty  of  the  law,  involving  remorse  of 
conscience  and  the  pains  of  hell,  he  did  offer  a  sacrifice, 
which  infinite  wisdom  saw  to  be  a  full  equivalent.  And 
by  virtue  of  this  atonement,  overtures  of  mercy  are  sin- 
cerely made  to  the  race,  and  salvation  secured  to  all  who 
believe. 

NINTH  ERROR.  ''  That  the  impenitent  sinner  is  by 
nature,  and  independently  of  the  renewing  influence  or 
almighty  energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  full  possession  of 
all  the  ability  necessary  to  a  full  compliance  with  all  the 
commands  of  God." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  While  sinners  have  all  the  fac- 
ulties necessary  to  a  perfect  moral  agency  and  a  just  ac- 
countability, such  is  their  love  of  sin  and  opposition  to 
God  and  his  law,  that,  independently  of  the  renewing  in- 
fluence or  almighty  energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  never 
will  comply  with  the  commands  of  God. 

TENTH  ERROR.  "  That  Christ  does  not  intercede  for 
the  elect  until  after  their  regeneration." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  The  intercession  of  Christ  for  the 
elect  is  previous  as  well  as  subsequent  to  their  regenera- 
tion, as  appears  from  the  following  Scripture,  viz.  **  I  pray 
not  for  the  world,  but  for  them  which  thou  hast  given 
me,  for  they  are  thine.  Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone, 
but  for  them  also  which  shall  believe  on  me  through  their 
word." 

ELEVENTH  ERROR.  "  That  saving  faith  is  not  an 
effect  of  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  a  mere 
rational  belief  of  the  truth  or  assent  to  the  word  of  God." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  Saving  faith  is  an  intelligent  and 
cordial  assent  to  the  testimony  of  God  concerning  his  Son, 
implying  reliance  on  Christ  alone  for  pardon  and  eternal 
life ;  and  in  all  cases  it  is  an  effect  of  the  special  operations 
of  the  Holy  Spirit. 


THE  AUBURN  DECLARATION,  1837.  36 1 

TWELFTH  ERROR.  "  That  regeneration  is  the  act 
of  the  sinner  himself,  and  that  it  consists  in  change  of  his 
governing  purpose,  which  he  himself  must  produce,  and 
which  is  the  result,  not  of  any  direct  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  on  the  heart,  but  chiefly  of  a  persuasive  exhibition 
of  the  truth,  analogous  to  the  influence  which  one  man 
exerts  over  the  mind  of  another;  or  that  regeneration  is 
not  an  instantaneous  act,  but  a  progressive  work." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  Regeneration  is  a  radical  change 
of  heart,  produced  by  the  special  operations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  **  determining  the  sinner  to  that  which  is  good,"  and 
is  in  all  cases  instantaneous. 

THIRTEENTH  ERROR.  ''That  God  has  done  all 
that  he  can  do  for  the  salvation  of  all  men,  and  that  man 
himself  must  do  the  rest." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  While  repentance  for  sin  and  faith 
in  Christ  are  indispensable  to  salvation,  all  who  are  saved 
are  indebted  from  first  to  last  to  the  grace  and  Spirit  of 
God.  And  the  reason  that  God  does  not  save  all,  is  not 
that  he  wants  the  poiver  to  do  it,  but  that  in  his  wisdom 
he  does  not  see  fit  to  exert  that  power  further  than  he 
actually  does. 

FOURTEENTH  ERROR.  "That  God  cannot  exert 
such  influence  on  the  minds  of  men,  as  shall  make  it  cer- 
tain that  they  will  choose  and  act  in  a  particular  manner, 
without  impairing  their  moral  agency." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  While  the  Hberty  of  the  will  is 
not  impaired,  nor  the  established  connexion  betwixt  means 
and  end  broken  by  any  action  of  God  on  the  mind,  he  can 
influence  it  according  to  his  pleasure,  and  does  effectually 
determine  it  to  good  in  all  cases  of  true  conversion. 

FIFTEENTH  ERROR.  ''That  the  righteousness  of 
Christ  is  not  the  sole  ground  of  the  sinner's  acceptance 
with  God  ;  and  that  in  no  sense  does  the  righteousness  of 
Christ  become  ours." 

TRUE   DOCTRINE.  All  believers  are  justified,  not  on 


362  APPENDIX. 

the  ground  of  personal  merit,  but  solely  on  the  ground  of 
the  obedience  and  death,  or,  in  other  words,  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ.  And  while  that  righteousness  does  not 
become  theirs,  in  the  sense  of  a  literal  transfer  of  personal 
qualities  and  merit ;  yet,  from  respect  to  it,  God  can  and 
does  treat  them  as  if  they  were  righteous. 

SIXTEENTH  ERROR.  '' That  the  reason  why  some 
differ  from  others  in  regard  to  their  reception  of  the  Gos- 
pel is,  that  they  make  themselves  to  differ." 

TRUE  DOCTRINE.  While  all  such  as  reject  the  Gos- 
pel of  Christ  do  it,  not  by  coercion  but  freely — and  all  who 
embrace  it  do  it,  not  by  coercion  but  freely — the  reason 
why  some  differ  from  others  is,  that  God  has  made  them 
to  differ. 


XV.    DELIVERANCES    ON    SLAVERY, 
(i)   TJie  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  in  1787, 

The  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  do  highly 
approve  of  the  general  principles  in  favour  of  universal 
liberty,  that  prevail  in  America,  and  the  interest  which 
many  of  the  states  have  taken  in  promoting  the  abolition 
of  slavery  ;  yet,  inasmuch  as  men  introduced  from  a  servile 
state  to  a  participation  of  all  the  privileges  of  civil  society, 
without  a  proper  education,  and  without  previous  habits 
of  industry,  may  be,  in  many  respects,  dangerous  to  the 
community,  therefore  they  earnestly  recommend  it  to  all 
the  members  belonging  to  their  communion,  to  give  those 
persons  who  are  at  present  held  in  servitude,  such  good 
education  as  to  prepare  them  for  the  better  enjoyment  of 
freedom ;  and  they  moreover  recommend  that  masters, 
wherever  they  find  servants  disposed  to  make  a  just  im- 
provement of  the  privilege,  would  give  them  a  pcciilinni, 
or  grant  them  sufficient  time  and  sufficient  means  of  pro- 
curing their  own  liberty  at  a  moderate  rate,  that  there- 
by they  may  be  brought  into  society  with  those  habits  of 


DELIVERANCES  ON  SLAVERY,  1811.  363 

industry  that  may  render  them  useful  citizens ;  and,  fin- 
ally, they  recommend  it  to  all  their  people  to  use  the 
most  prudent  measures,  consistent  with  the  interest  and 
the  state  of  civil  society,  in  the  counties  where  they  live, 
to  procure  eventually  the  final  abolition  of  slavery  in 
America. 

(2)    The  Reformed  Presbytery  in  1800. 

[This  I  have  not  been  able  to  procure,  but  its  terms 
made  the  abandonment  of  slave-holding  a  prerequisite  to 
church  communion.] 


(3)   The  Associate  Synod  in  181 1. 

1.  That  it  is  a  moral  evil  to  hold  negroes  or  their  chil- 
dren in  perpetual  slavery ;  or  to  claim  the  right  of  buying 
and  selling,  or  bequeathing  them  as  transferable  property. 

2.  That  in  those  States  where  the  liberation  of  slaves 
is  rendered  impracticable  by  the  existing  laws,' it  is  the 
duty  of  the  holders  of  slaves  to  treat  them  with  as  much 
justice  as  if  they  were  liberated ;  to  give  them  suitable 
food  and  clothing;  to  have  them  taught  to  read,  and  in- 
structed in  the  principles  of  religion  ;  and  when  their  ser- 
vices may  justly  deserve  it,  to  give  them  additional  com- 
pensation. 

3.  That  those  slave-holders  who  refuse  to  renounce 
the  above  claim  and  to  treat  their  slaves  in  the  manner 
now  specified,  are  unworthy  of  being  admitted  into  or 
retained  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Church  of  Christ.   .   .   . 

5.  ^That  it  is  the  special  duty  of  sessions  to  see  that  the 
above  regulations  be  faithfully  acted  upon. 

That  it  is  lawful  for  persons  in  our  communion  to 
purchase  negroes  from  those  who  are  holding  them  in 
absolute  and  perpetual  slavery,  with  a  view  to  retain  them 
in  their  service  until  they  are  recompensed  for  the  money 
laid  out  in  the  purchase  of  said  slaves,  provided  it  be  done 
with  the  consent  of  the  negroes  themselves,  and  that,  in 


364  APPENDIX. 

the  meantime,  they  be  treated  according  to  the  second 
resolution. 

But  before  they  be  acted  upon  by  any  session,  care 
shall  be  taken  in  every  congregation  where  the  application 
of  them  is  requisite,  not  only  to  have  the  people  apprized, 
but  instructed  in  the  moral  evil  of  slave-holding  here  con- 
templated. 

(4)    The  General  Assembly  in  1 8 1 8. 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  hav- 
ing taken  into  consideration  the  subject  of  SLAVERY, 
think  proper  to  make  known  their  sentiments  upon  it  to 
the  churches  and  people  under  their  care. 

We  consider  the  voluntary  enslaving  of  one  part  of  the 
human  race  by  another,  as  a  gross  violation  of  the  most 
precious  and  sacred  rights  of  human  nature ;  as  utterly 
inconsistent  with  the  law  of  God,  which  requires  us  to 
love  our  neighbour  as  ourselves;  and  as  totally  irreconcil- 
able with  the  spirit  and  principles  of  tlie  Gospel  of  Christ, 
which  enjoin  that,  "  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that 
men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them."  Slavery 
creates  a  paradox  in  the  moral  system- — it  exhibits  rational, 
accountable,  and  immortal  beings,  in  such  circumstances 
as  scarcely  to  leave  them  the  power  of  moral  action.  It 
exhibits  them  as  dependent  on  the  will  of  others,  whether 
they  shall  receive  religious  instruction  ;  whether  they  shall 
know  and  worship  the  true  God  ;  whether  they  shall  enjoy 
the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel ;  whether  they  shall  perform 
the  duties  and  cherish  the  endearments  of  husbands  and 
wives,  parents  and  children,  neighbours  and  friends; 
whether  they  shall  preserve  their  chastity  and  purity,  or 
regard  the  dictates  of  justice  and  humanity.  Such  are 
some  of  the  consequences  of  Slavery, — consequences  not 
imaginary — but  which  connect  themselves  with  its  very 
existence.  The  evils  to  which  the  slave  is  always  ex- 
posed, often  take  place  in  fact,  and  in  their  very  worst 
degree  and   form;    and  where  all  of  them   do   not   take 


DELIVERANCES   ON  SLAVERY,  1818.  365 

place,  as  we  rejoice  to  say  that  in  many  instances,  through 
the  influence  of  the  principles  of  humanity  and  religion 
on  the  minds  of  masters,  they  do  not — still  the  slave  is 
deprived  of  his  natural  right,  degraded  as  a  human  being, 
and  exposed  to  the  danger  of  passing  into  the  hands  of  a 
master  who  may  inflict  upon  him  all  the  hardships  and 
injuries  which  inhumanity  and  avarice  may  suggest. 

From  this  view  of  the  consequences  resulting  from  the 
practice  into  which  christian  people  have  most  inconsist- 
ently fallen,  of  enslaving  a  portion  of  their  bretJiren  of 
mankind — for  ''  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations 
of  men  to  dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth  " — it  is  manifestly 
the  duty  of  all  christians  who  enjoy  the  light  of  the  pres- 
ent day,  when  the  inconsistency  of  slavery,  both  with  the 
dictates  of  humanity  and  religion,  has  be^n  demonstrated, 
and  is  generally  seen  and  acknowledged,  to  use  their 
honest,  earnest,  and  unwearied  endeavors,  to  correct  the 
errors  of  former  times,  and  as  speedily  as  possible  to  efface 
this  blot  on  our  holy  religion,  and  to  obtain  the  complete 
abolition  of  slavery  throughout  Christendom,  and  if  possi- 
ble throughout  the  world. 

We  rejoice  that  the  church  to  which  we  belong  com- 
menced, as  early  as  any  other  in  this  country,  the  good 
work  of  endeavouring  to  put  an  end  to  slavery,  and  that 
in  the  same  work  many  of  its  members  have  ever  since 
been,  and  now  are,  among  the  most  active,  vigorous,  and 
efficient  labourers.  We  do,  indeed,  tenderly  sympathize 
with  those  portions  of  our  church  and  our  country,  where 
the  evil  of  slavery  has  been  entailed  upon  them ;  where  a 
great,  and  tJie  most  virtnoits  part  of  the  comnimiity  abhor 
slavery,  and  wish  its  extermination,  as  sincerely  as  any 
others — but  where  the  number  of  slaves,  their  ignorance, 
and  their  vicious  habits  generally,  render  an  immediate 
and  universal  emancipation  inconsistent,  alike,  with  the 
safety  and  happiness  of  the  master  and  the  slave.  With 
those  who  are  thus  circumstanced,  we  repeat  that  we  ten- 
derly sympathize. — At  the  same  time,  we  earnestly  ex- 
hort them  to  continue,  and,  if  possible,  to  increase  their 


366   '  APPENDIX. 

exertions  to  effect  a  total  abolition  of  slavery. — We  ex- 
hort them  to  suffer  no  greater  delay  to  take  place  in  this 
most  interesting  concern,  than  a  regard  to  the  public  wel- 
fare truly  and  indispensably  demands. 

As  our  country  has  inflicted  a  most  grievous  injury  on 
the  unhappy  Africans,  by  bringing  them  into  slavery,  we 
cannot,  indeed,  urge  that  we  should  add  a  second  injury 
to  the  first,  by  emancipating  them  in  such  manner  as  that 
they  will  be  likely  to  destroy  themselves  or  others.  But 
we  do  think,  that  our  country  ought  to  be  governed  in 
this  matter,  by  no  other  consideration  than  an  honest  and 
impartial  regard  to  the  happiness  of  the  injured  party; 
uninfluenced  by  the  expense  or  inconvenience  which  such 
a  regard  may  involve.  We  therefore  warn  all  who  be- 
long to  our  denomination  of  christians,  against  unduly  ex- 
tending this  plea  of  necessity ;  against  making  it  a  cover 
for  the  love  and  practice  of  slavery,  or  a  pretence  for  not 
using  efforts  that  are  lawful  and  practicable,  to  extinguish 
the  evil. 

And  we,  at  the  same  time,  exhort  others  to  forbear  harsh 
censures,  and  uncharitable  reflections  on  their  brethren, 
who  unhappily  live  among  slaves,  whom  they  cannot  im- 
mediately set  free;  but  who,  at  the  same  time,  are  really 
using  all  their  influence,  and  all  their  endeavours,  to  bring 
them  into  a  state  of  freedom,  as  soon  as  a  door  for  it  can 
be  safely  opened. 

Having  thus  expressed  our  views  of  slavery,  and  of  the 
duty  indispensably  incumbent  on  all  christians  to  labour 
for  its  complete  extinction,  we  proceed  to  recommend — 
(and  we  do  it  with  all  the  earnestness  and  solemnity  which 
this  momentous  subject  demands) — a  particular  attention 
to  the  following  points. 

I.  We  recommend  to  all  our  people  to  patronize  and 
encourage  the  Society,  lately  formed,  for  colonizing  in 
Africa,  the  land  of  their  ancestors,  the  free  people  of  colour 
in  our  country.  We  hope  that  much  good  may  result 
from  the  plans  and  efforts  of  this  Society.  And  while  we 
exceedingly  rejoice  to  have  witnessed  its  origin  and  organ- 


DELIVERANCES   ON  SLAVERY,  1818.  367 

Ization  among  the  holders  of  slaves,  as  giving  an  unequiv- 
ocal pledge  of  their  desire  to  deliver  themselves  and  their 
country  from  the  calamity  of  slavery ;  we  hope  that  those 
portions  of  the  American  Union,  whose  inhabitants  are,  by 
a  gracious  Providence,  more  favorably  circumstanced,  will 
cordially,  and  liberally,  and  earnestly  co-operate  with  their 
brethren,  in  bringing  about  the  great  end  contemplated. 

2.  We  recommend  to  all  the  members  of  our  religious 
denomination,  not  only  to  permit,  but  to  facilitate  and 
encourage  the  instruction  of  their  slaves,  in  the  principles 
and  duties  of  the  christian  religion ;  by  granting  them 
liberty  to  attend  on  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  when 
they  have  the  opportunity  ;  by  favouring  the  instruction 
of  them  in  Sabbath  Schools,  wherever  those  Schools  can 
be  formed ;  and  by  giving  them  all  other  proper  advan- 
tages for  acquiring  the  knowledge  of  their  duty  both  to 
God  and  man.  We  are  perfectly  satisfied,  that  as  it  is  in- 
cumbent on  all  christians  to  communicate  religious  instruc- 
tion to  those  who  are  under  their  authority,  so  that  the 
doing  of  this  in  the  case  before  us,  so  far  from  operating, 
as  some  have  apprehended  that  it  might,  as  an  excitement 
to  insubordination  and  insurrection,  would,  on  the  con- 
trary, operate  as  the  most  powerful  means  for  the  preven- 
tion of  those  evils. 

3.  We  enjoin  it  on  all  Church  Sessions  and  Presbyte- 
ries, under  the  care  of  this  Assembly,  to  discountenance, 
and,  as  far  as  possible,  to  prevent,  all  cruelty  of  whatever 
kind  in  the  treatment  of  slaves ;  especially  the  cruelty  of 
separating  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children,  and 
that  which  consists  in  selling  slaves  to  those  who  will 
either  themselves  deprive  these  unhappy  people  of  the 
blessings  of  the  Gospel,  or  who  will  transport  them  to 
places  where  the  Gospel  is  not  proclaimed,  or  where  it  is 
forbidden  to  slaves  to  attend  upon  its  institutions. — The 
manifest  violation  or  disregard  of  the  injunction  here 
given,  in  its  true  spirit  and  intention,  ought  to  be  consid- 
ered as  just  ground  for  the  discipline  and  censures  of  the 
church. — And  if  it  shall  ever  happen  that  a  christian  pro- 


368  APPENDIX. 

fessor,  in  our  communion,  shall  sell  a  slave  who  is  also  in 
communion  and  good  standing  with  our  church,  contrary 
to  his  or  her  will,  and  inclination,  it  ought  immediately  to 
claim  the  particular  attention  of  the  proper  church  judica- 
ture ;  and  unless  there  be  such  peculiar  circumstances 
attending  the  case  as  can  but  seldom  happen,  it  ought  to 
be  followed,  without  delay,  by  a  suspension  of  the  offender 
from  all  the  privileges  of  the  church,  till  he  repent,  and 
make  all  the  reparation  in  his  power,  to  the  injured  party. 

(5)    The  Associate  Refomned  Synod  in  1830. 

RESOLVED,  I.  That  the  religion  of  Christ  Jesus  re- 
quires that  involuntary  slavery  should  be  removed  from 
the  Church,  as  soon  as  an  opportunity,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  is  offered  to  slave-owners  for  the  liberation  of 
their  slaves. 

2.  That  when  there  are  no  regulations  of  the  State  to 
prohibit  it ;  when  provision  can  be  made  for  the  support  of 
the  freedmen ;  when  they  can  be  placed  in  circumstances 
to  support  the  rank,  enjoy  the  rights  and  discharge  the 
duties  of  freedmen,  it  shall  be  considered  that  such  an 
opportunity  is  afforded  in  the  providence  of  God. 

3.  That  Synod  will,  as  it  hereby  does,  recommend  it  to 
all  its  members  to  aid  in  placing  the  slaves  that  are  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  this  Synod  in  the  possession  of  their 
rights  as  freedmen ;  and  that  it  be  recommended  to  them 
especially  to  take  up  annual  collections,  to  aid  the  funds 
of  the  American  society  for  colonizing  the  free  people  of 
color  of  the  United  States. 

4.  That  the  practice  of  bu3nng  or  selling  of  slaves  for 
gain,  by  any  member  of  this  Church,  be  disapproved,  and 
that  slave-owners  under  the  jurisdiction  of  this  Synod,  be, 
as  they  hereby  are,  forbidden  all  aggravations  of  the  evils 
of  slavery,  by  violating  the  ties  of  nature,  in  the  separa- 
tion of  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children,  or  by 
cruel  or  unkind  treatment ;  and  that  they  shall  not  only 
treat  them  well,  but  also  instruct  them  in  useful  knowl- 


DELIVERANCES   ON  SLAVERY,    1845.  369 

edge  and  the  principles  of  the  Christian  reHgion,  and  in 
all  respects  treat  them  as  enjoined  upon  masters  towards 
their  servants  by  the  apostles  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

(6)    The  Synod  of  Associate  CJiiircJi  in  1831. 

RESOLVED,  I.  That  as  slavery  is  clearly  condemned 
by  the  law  of  God,  and  has  been  long  since  judicially 
declared  to  be  a  moral  evil  by  this  Church,  no  member 
thereof  shall,  from  and  after  this  date,  be  allowed  to  hold 
a  human  being  in  the  character  or  condition  of  a  slave. 

2.  That  this  Synod  do  hereby  order  all  its  subordinate 
judicatories  to  proceed  forthwith  to  carry  into  execution 
the  intention  of  the  foregoing  resolution,  by  requiring  those 
church  members  under  their  immediate  inspection,  who 
may  be  possessed  of  slaves,  to  relinquish  their  unjust  claims, 
and  release  those  whom  they  may  have  heretofore  consid- 
ered as  their  property. 

3.  That  if  any  member  or  members  of  this  Church,  in 
order  to  evade  this  act,  shall  sell  any  of  their  slaves,  or 
make  a  transfer  of  them,  so  as  to  retain  the  proceeds  of 
their  services,  or  the  price  of  their  sale,  or  in  any  other 
way  evade  the  provisions  of  this  act,  they  shall  be  subject 
to  the  censures  of  the  Church. 

4.  Further,  that  where  an  individual  is  found,  who  has 
spent  so  much  of  his  or  her  strength  in  the  service  of  an- 
other, as  to  be  disqualified  from  providing  for  his  or  her 
own  support,  the  master,  in  such  a  case,  is  to  be  held 
responsible  for  the  comfortable  maintenance  of  said  ser- 
vants. 

(7)    The  General  Assembly  {O.  S.)  in  1845. 

The  question  which  is  now  unhappily  agitating  and 
dividing  other  branches  of  the  church,  and  which  is 
pressed  upon  the  attention  of  the  Assembly  is,  whether  the 
holding  of  slaves  is,  under  all  circumstances,  a  heinous 
sin,  calling  for  the  discipline  of  the  church. 

The  church  of  Christ  is  a  spiritual  body,  whose  jurisdic- 


370  APPENDIX, 

tion  extends  only  to  the  religious  faith,  and  moral  conduct 
of  her  members.  She  cannot  legislate  where  Christ  has 
not  legislated,  nor  make  terms  of  membership  which  he 
has  not  made.  The  question,  therefore,  which  this  As- 
sembly is  called  upon  to  decide,  is  this :  Do  the  Scriptures 
teach  that  the  holding  of  slaves,  without  regard  to  circum- 
stances, is  a  sin,  the  renunciation  of  which  should  be  made 
a  condition  of  membership  in  the  church  of  Christ. 

It  is  impossible  to  answer  this  question  in  the  affirma- 
tive, without  contradicting  some  of  the  plainest  declara- 
tions of  the  word  of  God.  That  slavery  existed  in  the 
days  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles  is  an  admitted  fact.  That 
they  did  not  denounce  the  relation  itself  as  sinful,  as  in- 
consistent with  Christianity  ;  that  slaveholders  were  ad- 
mitted to  membership  in  the  churches  organized  by  the 
Apostles ;  that  whilst  they  were  required  to  treat  their 
slaves  with  kindness,  and  as  rational,  accountable,  immor- 
tal beings,  and  if  Christians,  as  brethren  in  the  Lord,  they 
were  not  commanded  to  emancipate  them ;  that  slaves 
were  required  to  be  **  obedient  to  their  masters  according 
to  the  flesh,  with  fear  and  trembling,  with  singleness  of 
heart  as  unto  Christ,"  are  facts  which  meet  the  eye  of 
every  reader  of  the  New  Testament.  This  Assembly 
cannot,  therefore,  denounce  the  holding  of  slaves  as  neces- 
sarily a  heinous  and  scandalous  sin,  calculated  to  bring 
upon  the  Church  the  curse  of  God,  without  charging  the 
Apostles  of  Christ  with  conniving  at  such  sin,  introducing 
into  the  Church  such  sinners,  and  thus  bringing  upon 
them  the  curse  of  the  Almighty. 

In  so  saying,  however,  the  Assembly  are  not  to  be 
understood  as  denying  that  there  is  evil  connected  with 
slavery.  Much  less  do  they  approve  those  defective  and 
oppressive  laws  by  which,  in  some  of  the  States,  it  is  reg- 
ulated. Nor  would  they  by  any  means  countenance  the 
traffic  in  slaves  for  the  sake  of  gain;  the  separation  of 
hu.sbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children,  for  the  sake  of 
"filthy  lucre"  or  for  the  convenience  of  the  master;  or 
cruel  treatment  of  slaves  in  any  respect.      Every  Christian 


DELIVERANCES   ON  SLAVERY,  I845.  37  I 

and  philanthropist  certainly  should  seek  by  all  peaceable 
and  lawful  means  the  repeal  of  unjust  and  oppressive 
laws,  and  the  amendment  of  such  as  are  defective,  so  as 
to  protect  the  slaves  from  cruel  treatment  by  wicked  men, 
and  secure  to  them  the  right  to  receive  religjous  instruction. 

Nor  is  this  Assembly  to  be  understood  as  countenancing 
the  idea  that  masters  may  regard  their  servants  as  ifiere 
property,  and  not  as  human  beings,  rational,  accountable, 
immortal.  The  Scriptures  prescribe  not  only  the  duties 
of  servants,  but  of  masters  also,  warning  the  latter  to  dis- 
charge those  duties,  "  knowing  that  their  Master  is  in 
heaven,  neither  is  there  respect  of  persons  with  him." 

The  Assembly  intend  simply  to  say,  that  since  Christ 
and  his  inspired  Apostles  did  not  'make  the  holding  of 
slaves  a  bar  to  communion,  we,  as  a  court  of  Christ,  have 
no  authority  to  do  so ;  since  they  did  not  attempt  to  re- 
move it  from  the  Church  by  legislation,  we  have  no  au- 
thority to  legislate  on  the  subject.  We  feel  constrained, 
further,  to  say,  that  however  desirable  it  may  be  to  ameli- 
orate the  condition  of  the  slaves  in  the  Southern  and 
Western  States,  or  to  remove  slavery  from  our  country, 
these  objects  we  are  fully  persuaded  can  never  be  secured 
by  ecclesiastical  legislation.  Much  less  can  they  be  at- 
tained by  those  indiscriminate  denunciations  against  slave- 
holders, without  regard  to  their  character  or  circumstances, 
which  have,  to  so  great  an  extent,  characterized  the  move- 
ments of  modern  abolitionists,  which,  so  far  from  remov- 
ing the  evils  complained  of,  tend  only  to  perpetuate  and 
aggravate  them. 

The  Apostles  of  Christ  sought  to  ameliorate  the  condi- 
tion of  slaves,  not  by  denouncing  and  excommunicating 
their  masters,  but  by  teaching  both  masters  and  slaves  the 
glorious  Soctrines  of  the  gospel,  and  enjoining  upon  each 
the  discharge  of  their  relative  duties.  Thus  only  can  the 
church  of  Christ,  as  such,  now  improve  the  condition  of 
the  slaves  in  our  country. 

As  to  the  extent  of  the  evils  involved  in  slavery  and  the 
best  methods  of  removing  them,  various  opinions  prevail, 


372  APPENDIX. 

and  neither  Scriptures  nor  our  constitution  authorize  this 
body  to  prescribe  any  particular  course  to  be  pursued  by 
the  churches  under  our  care.  The  Assembly  cannot  but 
rejoice,  however,  to  learn  that  the  ministers  and  churches 
in  the  slave-hokiing  States  are  awaking  to  a  deeper  sense 
of  their  obligation  to  extend  to  the  slave  population  gen- 
erally the  means  of  grace,  and  many  slave-holders  not 
professedly  religious  favour  this  object.  We  earnestly 
exhort  them  to  abound  more  and  more  in  this  good  work. 
We  would  exhort  every  believing  master  to  remember  that 
his  Master  is  also  in  heaven,  and  in  view  of  all  the  circum- 
stances in  which  he  is  placed,  to  act  in  the  spirit  of  the 
golden  rule :  "  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
to  you,  do  ye  even  the  same  to  them." 

In  view  of  the  above  stated  principles  and  facts — 
RESOLVED,  1st.  That  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  was  originally 
organized,  and  has  since  continued  the  bond  of  union  in 
the  Church  upon  the  conceded  principle  that  the  existence 
of  domestic  slavery,  under  the  circumstances  in  which  it  is 
found  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  country,  is  no  bar  to 
Christian  communion. 

2d.  That  the  petitions  that  ask  the  Assembly  to  make 
the  holding  of  slaves  in  itself  a  matter  of  discipline,  do 
virtually  require  this  judicatory  to  dissolve  itself,  and 
abandon  the  organization  under  which,  by  the  Divine 
blessing,  it  has  so  long  prospered.  The  tendency  is  evi- 
dently to  separate  the  northern  from  the  southern  portion 
of  the  Church  ;  a  result  which  every  good  citizen  must 
deplore  as  tending  to  the  dissolution  of  the  union  of  our 
beloved  country,  and  which  every  enlightened  Christian 
will  oppose  as  bringing  about  a  ruinous  and  unnecessary 
schism  between  brethren  who  maintain  a  common  faith. 


(8)    The  General  Assembly  (N.  S.)  in  1850. 

We  exceedingly  deplore  the  working  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  slavery  as  it  exists  in  our  country  and  is  inter- 


DELIVERANCES   ON  SLAVERY,  1853.  373 

woven  with  the  poHtical  institutions  of  the  slave-holding 
States,  as  fraught  with  many  and  great  evils  to  the  civil, 
political,  and  moral  interests  of  those  regions  where  it 
exists. 

The  holding  of  our  fellow-men  in  the  condition  of  slav- 
ery, except  in  those  cases  where  it  is  unavoidable,  by  the 
laws  of  the  State,  the  obligations  of  guardianship,  or  the 
demands  of  humanity,  is  an  offence  in  the  proper  import 
of  that  term,  as  used  in  the  Book  of  Discipline,  chap.  i. 
sec.  3,  and  should  be  regarded  and  treated  in  the  same 
manner  as  other  offences. 

The  sessions  and  presbyteries  are,  by  the  Constitution 
of  our  church,  the  courts  of  primary  jurisdiction  for  the 
trial  of  offences. 

That,  after  this  declaration  of  sentiment,  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  slavery,  as  it  exists  in  the  church,  be  referred  to 
the  sessions  and  presbyteries,  to  take  such  action  thereon 
as  in  their  judgment  the  laws  of  Christianity  require. 

(9)    The  General  Assembly  (N.  5.)  in  1853. 

1.  That  this  body  reaffirm  the  doctrine  of  the  2d  reso- 
lution adopted  by  the  Assembly  in  its  action  at  Detroit  in 
1850. 

2.  That  we  do  earnestly  exhort  and  beseech  all  those 
who  are  happily  free  from  any  personal  connection  with 
the  institution  of  slavery,  to  exercise  patience  and  forbear- 
ance toward  their  brethren  less  favoured  in  this  respect 
than  themselves,  remembering  the  embarrassments  of  their 
position ;  and  to  cherish  for  them  that  fraternal  confidence 
and  love  which  they  the  more  need  in  consequence  of  the 
peculiar  trials  by  which  they  are  surrounded. 

3.  To  correct  misapprehensions  which  may  exist  in 
many  Northern  minds,  and  allay  causeless  irritation,  by 
having  the  real  facts  in  relation  to  this  subject  spread 
before  the  whole  church,  it  is  recommended  earnestly  to 
request  the  presbyteries  in  each  of  the  slave-holding  States 
to  take  such  measures  as  may  seem  to  them  most  expe- 


3  74  APPENDIX. 

dient  and  proper,  for  laying  before  the  next  Assembly,  in 
its  sessions  at  Philadelphia,  distinct  and  full  statements 
touching  the  following  points:  — 

(i)  The  number  of  slave-holders  in  connection  with  the 
churches  under  their  jurisdiction,  and  the  number  of  slaves 
held  by  them. 

(2)  The  extent  to  which  slaves  are  held  by  an  unavoid- 
able necessity  "  imposed  by  the  laws  of  the  States,  the 
obligations  of  guardianship,  and  the  demands  of  human- 
ity." 

(3)  Whether  a  practical  regard,  such  as  the  w^ord  of 
God  requires,  is  evinced  by  the  Southern  churches  for  the 
sacredness  of  the  conjugal  and  parental  relations  as  they 
exist  among  slaves ;  whether  baptism  is  duly  administered 
to  the  children  of  slaves  professing  Christianity ;  whether 
slaves  are  admitted  to  equal  privileges  and  powers  in  the 
church  courts  ;  and,  in  general,  to  what  extent  and  in  what 
manner  provision  is  made  for  the  reHgious  well-being  of 
the  enslaved. 


XVI.    DOCTRINAL   BASIS   OF  THE   UNION  OF    1858,  FORM- 
ING  THE    UNITED    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH. 

I.  We  declare,  That  God  has  not  only  in  the  Scriptures 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  made  a  revelation  of  his 
will  to  man,  as  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  but  that 
these  Scriptures,  viewed  as  a  revelation  from  God,  are  in 
every  part  the  inspired  word  of  God,  and  that  this  inspira- 
tion extends  to  the  language,  as  well  as  to  the  sentiments 
which  they  express. 

II.  We  declare,  That  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  not  only 
true  and  Supreme  God,  being  one  in  essence  with  the 
Father,  but  also  the  Son  of  God,  in  respect  of  his  natural, 
necessary,  and  eternal  relation  to  the  Father. 

III.  We  declare,  That  God  having  created  man  in  a 
state  of  perfect  holiness,  and  in  possession  of  a  perfect 
ability  to  obey  him  in  all  things,  did  enter  into  a  covenant 


BASIS   OF   UXJOX,  ISdS.  375 

with  him,  in  which  covenant  Adam  was  the  representative 
of  all  his  natural  posterity,  so  that  in  him  they  were  to 
stand  or  fall,  as  he  stood  or  fell. 

IV.  We  declare,  That  our  first  parents  did,  by  their 
breach  of  covenant  with  God,  subject  themselves  to  his 
eternal  wrath,  and  bring  themselves  into  such  a  state  of 
depravity  as  to  be  wholly  inclined  to  sin,  and  altogether 
unable,  by  their  own  power,  to  perform  a  single  act  of 
acceptable  obedience  to  God;  and  that  all  their  natural 
posterity,  in  virtue  of  their  representation  in  the  covenant, 
are  born  into  the  world  in  the  same  state  of  guilt,  deprav- 
ity, and  inability,  and  in  this  state  will  continue  until  de- 
livered therefrom  by  the  grace  and  righteousness  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

V.  We  declare,  That  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  did,  by  the 
appointment  of  the  Father,  and  by  his  own  gracious  and 
voluntary  act,  place  himself  in  the  room  of  a  definite  num- 
ber, who  were  chosen  in  him  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world  ;  so  that  he  was  their  true  and  proper  legal  surety; 
and  as  such,  did,  in  their  behalf,  satisfy  the  justice  of  God, 
and  answer  all  the  demands  which  the  law  had  against 
them,  and.  thereby  infallibly  obtain  for  them  eternal  re- 
demption. 

VI.  We  declare,  That  in  justification  there  is  an  impu- 
tation to  the  believer  of  that  righteousness,  or  satisfaction 
and  obedience,  which  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  surety 
of  his  people,  rendered  to  the  law ;  and  that  it  is  only  on 
the  ground  of  this  imputed  righteousness  that  his  sins  are 
pardoned,  and  his  person  accepted  in  the  sight  of  God. 

VII.  We  declare,  That  the  gospel,  taken  in  its  strict  and 
proper  sense,  as  distinguished  from  the  law,,  is  a  revelation 
of  grace  to  sinners  as  such  ;  and  that  it  contains  a  free  and 
unconditional  offer  and  grant  of  salvation  through  Christ, 
to  all  who  hear  it,  whatever  may  be  their  character  or  con- 
dition. 

VIII.  We  declare.  That  In  true  and  saving  faith  there  is 
not  merely  an  assent  of  the  mind  to  the  proposition  thrit 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  sinners ;  but  also 


376  APPENDIX. 

a  cordial  reception  and  appropriation  of  him  by  the  sinner 
as  his  Saviour,  with  an  accompanying  persuasion  or  assur- 
ance corresponding  to  the  degree  or  strength  of  his  faith, 
that  he  shall  be  saved  by  him ;  which  appropriation  and 
persuasion  are  founded,  solely,  upon  the  free,  and  uncon- 
ditional, and  unlimited  offer  of  Christ  and  salvation  in  him, 
which  God  makes  in  the  gospel  to  sinners  of  mankind. 

IX.  We  declare,  That  the  repentance  which  is  a  saving 
grace,  is  one  of  ih.Q  fi^tnts  of  a  justifying  faith;  and,  of 
course,  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  ground  of  the  sinner's 
pardon,  or  as  necessary  to  qualify  him  for  coming  to 
Christ. 

X.  We  declare.  That  although  the  moral  law  is  of  per- 
petual obligation,  and  consequently  does  and  ever  will 
bind  the  believer  as  a  rule  of  life,  yet  as  a  covenant,  he  is, 
by  his  justification  through  Christ,  completely  and  forever 
set  free  from  it,  both  as  to  its  commanding  and  condemn- 
ing power,  and  consequently  not  required  to  yield  obedi- 
ence to  it  as  a  condition  of  life  and  salvation. 

XL  We  declare,  That  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  third  person 
of  the  Trinity,  does,  by  a  direct  operation  accompanying 
the  word,  so  act  upon  the  soul  as  to  quicken,  regenerate, 
and  sanctify  it ;  and  that  without  this  direct  operation,  the 
soul  would  have  no  ability  to  perceive.  In  a  saving  manner, 
the  truths  of  God's  word,  or  yield  to  the  motives  which  it 
presents. 

XII.  We  declare,  That  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  besides 
the  dominion  which  belongs  to  him  as  God,  has,  as  our 
God-man  Mediator,  a  twofold  dominion,  with  which  he 
has  been  Invested  by  the  Father  as  the  reward  of  his  suf- 
ferings. These  are  a  dominion  over  the  Church,  of  which 
he  is  the  living  Head  and  Lawgiver,  and  the  source  of  all 
that  Divine  influence  and  authority  by  which  she  is  sus- 
tained and  governed ;  and  also  a  dominion  over  all  created 
persons  and  things,  which  is  exercised  by  him  in  subserv- 
iency to  the  manifestations  of  God's  glory  in  the  system 
of  redemption,  and  the  interests  of  his  Church. 

XIII.  We  declare,  That  the  law  of  God,  as  written  upon 


BASIS  OF   UNION,  1S5S.  377 

the  heart  of  man,  and  as  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  is  supreme  in  its  authority  and 
obligations ;  and  that  where  the  commands  of  the  Church 
or  State  are  in  conflict  with  the  commands  of  this  law,  we 
are  to  obey  God  rather  than  man. 

XIV.  We  declare,  That  slaveholding — that  is,  the  hold- 
ing of  unoffending  human  beings  in  involuntary  bondage, 
and  considering  and  treating  them  as  property,  and  subject 
to  be  bought  and  sold — is  a  violation  of  the  law  of  God, 
and  contrary  both  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  Christianity. 

XV.  We  declare,  That  all  associations,  whether  formed 
for  political  or  benevolent  purposes,  which  impose  upon 
their  members  an  oath  of  secrecy,  or  an  obligation  to  obey 
a  code  of  unknown  laws,  are  inconsistent  with  the  genius 
and  spirit  of  Christianity,  and  Church  members  ought  not 
to  have  fellowship  with  such  associations. 

XVI.  We  declare,  That  the  Church  should  not  extend 
communion,  in  sealing  ordinances,  to  those  who  refuse 
adherence  to  her  profession,  or  subjection  to  her  govern- 
ment and  discipline,  or  who  refuse  to  forsake  a  communion 
which  is  inconsistent  with  the  profession  that  she  makes ; 
nor  should  communion  in  any  ordinance  of  worship  be 
held  under  such  circumstances  as  would  be  inconsistent 
with  the  keeping  of  these  ordinances  pure  and  entire,  or 
so  as  to  give  countenance  to  any  corruption  of  the  doc- 
trines and  institutions  of  Christ. 

XVII.  We  declare,  That  public  social  covenanting  is  a 
moral  duty,  the  observance  of  which  is  not  required  at 
stated  times,  but  on  extraordinary  occasions,  as  the  provi- 
dence of  God  and  the  circumstances  of  the  Church  may 
indicate.  It  is  seasonable  in  times  of  great  danger  to  the 
Church — in  times  of  exposure  to  backsliding — or  in  times 
of  reformation,  when  the  Church  is  returning  to  God  from 
a  state  of  backsliding.  When  the  Church  has  entered  into 
such  covenant  transactions,  they  continue  to  bind  poster- 
ity faithfully  to  adhere  to  and  prosecute  the  grand  object 
for  which  such  engagements  have  been  entered  into. 

XVIII.  We  declare.  That  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  the 


378  APPENDIX. 

songs  contained  in  the  Book  of  Psalms  be  sung  in  his  wor- 
ship, both  pubHc  and  private,  to  the  end  of  the  world ;  and 
in  singing  God's  praise,  these  songs  should  be  employed 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  devotional  compositions  of  unin- 
spired men. 

XVII.    ADOPTING   ACT    OF   THE    UNION    OF    1 858. 

WHEREAS,  it  is  understood  that  the  Testimony  sub- 
mitted to  the  General  Synod  of  the  Associate  Reformed 
Church  by  the  Associate  Synod,  was  proposed  and  ac- 
cepted as  a  term  of  communion,  on  the  adoption  of  which 
the  union  of  the  two  Churches  was  to  be  consummated ; 
and,  whereas,  it  is  agreed  between  the  two  Churches  that 
the  forbearance  in  love,  which  is  required  by  the  law  of 
God,  will  be  exercised  towards  any  brethren  who  may  not 
be  able  fully  to  subscribe  the  Standards  of  the  united 
Church,  while  they  do  not  determinedly  oppose  them,  but 
follow  the  things  which  make  for  peace,  and  things  where- 
with one  may  edify  another:  — 

1.  Resolved,  That  these  Churches,  when  united,  shall 
be  called  the  *'  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  North 
America." 

2.  Resolved,  That  the  respective  Presbyteries  of  these 
Churches  shall  remain  as  at  present  constituted  until  other- 
wise ordered,  as  convenience  shall  suggest. 

3.  Resolved,  That  the  Supreme  Court  of  this  Church 
shall  be  a  General  Assembly,  to  meet  annually,  to  be 
composed  of  delegates  from  the  respective  Presbyteries, 
the  number  of  delegates  to  be  according  to  the  proportion 
of  the  members  constituting  each  Presbytery,  as  now  fixed 
by  the  rules  of  the  Associate  Reformed  Church,  until  a 
change  shall  be  found  expedient. 

4.  Resolved,  That  there  shall  be  subordinate  Synods, 
and  these  shall  be  the  same  as  those  now  existing  in  the 
Associate  Reformed  Church,  to  which  Synods  the  differ- 
ent Presbyteries  In  the  Associate  Church  shall  attach 
themselves   for   the   present   according  to   their  location, 


THE   SPRING  RESOLUTIONS,  1861.  379 

provided  that  the  separate  Synods  and  Presbyteries  of  the 
said  Associate  Reformed  and  Associate  Churches  shall 
also  continue  as  at  present  constituted  until  otherwise 
directed. 

5.  Resolved,  That  the  General  Assembly  and  subordi- 
nate Synods  shall  be  regulated  according  to  the  rules  pres- 
ently in  force  in  the  Associate  Reformed  Church,  until  the 
united  Church  shall  see  fit  to  alter  such  rules. 

6.  Resolved,  That  the  different  Boards  and  Institutions 
of  the  respective  Churches  shall  not  be  affected  by  this 
union,  but  shall  have  the  control  of  their  funds,  and  retain 
all  their  corporate,  or  other  rights  and  privileges,  until  the 
interests  of  the  Church  shall  require  a  change. 

7.  Resolved,  That  these  and  other  regulations  found 
necessary,  being  agreed  upon  by  the  respective  Synods  at 
the  present  meeting  in  the  city  of  Allegheny,  the  two 
Synods  sliall  meet  at  such  a  place  as  shall  mutually  be 
agreed  upon,  and  be  constituted  with  prayer  by  the  Senior 
Moderator,  after  which  a  Moderator  and  Clerk  shall  be 
chosen  by  the  united  Church. 


XVIII.    THE  ACTION  OF  THE  OLD-SCHOOL  ASSEMBLY  ON 
LOYALTY,  IN    1 86 1. 

(a)    The  Gardiner  Spring  Resolutions. 

Gratefully  acknowledging  the  distinguished  bounty  and 
care  of  Almighty  God  toward  this  favored  land,  and  also 
recognizing  our  obligations  to  submit  to  every  ordinance 
of  man  for  the  Lord's  sake,  this  General  Assembly  adopt 
the  following  resolutions: 

Resolved,  I.  That  in  view  of  the  present  agitated  and 
unhappy  condition  of  this  country,  the  first  day  of  July 
next  be  hereby  set  apart  as  a  day  of  prayer  throughout 
our  bounds ;  and  that  on  that  day  ministers  and  people  are 
called  on  humbly  to  confess  and  bewail  our  national  sins; 
to  offer  our  thanks  to  the  Father  of  light  for  his  abundant 


380  APPENDIX. 

and  undeserved  goodness  toward  us  as  a  nation ;  to  seek 
his  guidance  and  blessing  upon  our  rulers,  and  their  coun- 
sels, as  well  as  on  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  about 
to  assemble ;  and  to  implore  him,  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Great  High  Priest  of  the  Christian  profession, 
to  turn  away  his  anger  from  us,  and  speedily  restore  to  us 
the  blessings  of  an  honorable  peace. 

Resolved^  2.  That  this  General  Assembly,  in  the  spirit 
of  that  Christian  patriotism  which  the  Scriptures  enjoin, 
and  which  has  always  characterized  this  Church,  do  hereby 
acknowledge  and  declare  our  obligation  to  promote  and 
perpetuate,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  the  integrity  of  these 
United  States,  and  to  strengthen,  uphold,  and  encourage 
the  Federal  Government  in  the  exercise  of  all  its  functions 
under  our  noble  Constitution  ;  and  to  this  Constitution, 
in  all  its  provisions,  requirements,  and  principles,  we  profess 
our  unabated  loyalty. 

And  to  avoid  all  misconception,  the  Assembly  declare 
that  by  the  terms  **  Federal  Government,"  as  here  used, 
is  not  meant  any  particular  administration,  or  the  peculiar 
opinions  of  any  particular  party,  but  that  central  administra- 
tion, which  being  at  any  time  inaugurated  according  to  the 
forms  prescribed  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
is  the  visible  representative  of  our  national  existence. 

[b)  Protest  of  Dr.  Hodge  and  Others. 

We,  the  undersigned,  respectfully  protest  against  the 
action  of  the  General  Assembly  in  adopting  the  minority 
report  of  the  Committee  on  the  State  of  the  Country. 

We  make  this  protest,  not  because  we  do  not  acknowl- 
edge loyalty  to  our  country  to  be  a  moral  and  religious 
duty,  according  to  the  word  of  God,  which  requires  us  to 
be  subject  to  the  powers  that  be ;  nor  because  we  deny 
the  right  of  the  Assembly  to  enjoin  that,  and  all  other  like 
duties,  on  the  ministers  and  churches  under  its  care ;  but 
because  we  deny  the  right  of  the  General  Assembly  to 
decide    the    political    question,   to   what   government    the 


THE   SPRING   RESOLUTIONS,  1861.  38 1 

allegiance  of  Presbyterians  as  citizens  is  due,  and  its  right 
to  make  that  decision  a  condition  of  membership  in  our 
Church. 

That  the  paper  adopted  by  the  Assembly  does  decide 
the  political  question  just  stated,  is  in  our  judgment  unde- 
niable. It  asserts  not  only  the  loyalty  of  this  body  to  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union,  but  it  promises  in  the  name 
of  all  the  churches  and  ministers  whom  it  represents,  to  do 
all  that  in  them  lies  to  "  strengthen,  uphold,  and  encour- 
age the  Federal  Government."  It  is,  however,  a  notori- 
ous fact,  that  many  of  our  ministers  and  members  con- 
scientiously believe  that  the  allegiance  of  the  citizens  of 
this  country  is  primarily  due  to  the  States  to  which  they 
respectively  belong;  and,  therefore,  that  when  any  State 
renounces  its  connection  with  the  United  States,  and  its 
allegiance  to  the  Constitution,  the  citizens  of  that  State  are 
bound  by  the  laws  of  God  to  continue  loyal  to  their  State, 
and  obedient  to  its  laws.  The  paper  adopted  by  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  virtually  declares,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
the  allegiance  of  the  citizens  is  due  to  the  United  States; 
anything  in  the  Constitution,  or  ordinances,  or  laws  of  the 
several  States,  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

It  is  not  the  loyalty  of  the  members  constituting  this 
Assembly,  nor  of  our  churches  and  ministers  in  any  one 
portion  of  our  country,  that  is  thus  asserted,  but  the  loyalty 
of  the  whole  Presbyterian  Church,  North  and  South,  East 
and  West. 

Allegiance  to  the  Federal  Government  is  recognized  or 
declared  to  be  the  duty  of  all  the  churches  and  ministers 
represented  in  this  body.  In  adopting  this  paper,  there- 
fore, the  Assembly  does  decide  the  great  political  question 
which  agitates  and  divides  the  country.  The  question  is 
whether  the  allegiance  of  our  citizens  is  primarily  to  the 
State  or  to  the  Union.  However  clear  our  own  convic- 
tions of  the  correctness  of  this  decision  may  be,  or  however 
deeply  we  may  be  impressed  with  its  importance,  yet  it  is 
not  a  question  which  this  Assembly  has  the  right  to  decide. 

A  man  may  conscientiously  believe  that  he  owes  alle- 


382  APPENDIX. 

giance  to  one  government  or  another,  and  yet  possess  all 
the  qualifications  which  the  word  of  God  or  the  standards 
of  the  Church  authorize  us  to  demand  of  in  our  members 
or  ministers.  As  this  General  Assembly  represents  the 
whole  Church,  the  acts  and  deliverances  of  this  Assembly 
become  the  acts  and  deliverances  of  the  Church.  It  is  this 
consideration  that  gives  to  the  action  of  this  Assembly  in 
this  case  all  its  importance,  either  in  our  own  view  or  in 
the  view  of  others. 

It  is  the  allegiance  of  the  Old-school  Presbyterian 
Church  to  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and  the  Federal 
Government,  which  this  paper  is  intended  to  profess  and 
proclaim.  It  does,  therefore,  of  necessity,  decide  the 
political  question  which  agitates  the  country.  It  pro- 
nounces or  assumes  a  particular  interpretation  of  the  Con- 
stitution. This  is  a  matter  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Assembly. 

That  the  action  of  the  Assembly  in  the  premises  does 
not  only  decide  the  political  question  referred  to,  but 
makes  that  decision  a  term  of  membership  in  the  Church, 
is  no  less  clear.  It  is  not  analogous  to  the  recommen- 
dation of  a  religious  or  benevolent  institution,  which  our 
members  may  regard  or  not  at  pleasure ;  but  it  puts  into 
the  mouths  of  all  represented  in  this  body,  a  declaration 
of  loyalty  and  allegiance  to  the  Union  and  to  the  Federal 
Government.  But  such  a  declaration,  made  by  our  mem- 
bers residing  in  what  are  called  the  seceding  States,  is 
treasonable.  Presbyterians  under  the  jurisdiction  of  those 
States,  cannot,  therefore,  make  that  declaration.  They 
are  consequently  forced  to  choose  between  allegiance  to 
their  States  and  allegiance  to  the  Church.  The  General 
Assembly  in  thus  deciding  a  political  question,  and  in 
making  that  decision  practically  a  condition  of  member- 
ship to  the  Church,  has,  in  our  judgment,  violated  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Church,  and  usurped  the  prerogative  of  its 
Divine  Master. 

We  protest  loudly  against  the  action  of  the  Assembly, 
because  it  is  a  departure  from  all  its  previous  actions. 


THE   SPRING  RESOLUTIONS,  186 1.  383 

The  General  Assembly  has  always  acted  on  the  princi- 
ple that  the  Church  has  no  right  to  make  anything  a  con- 
dition of  Christian  or  ministerial  fellowship,  whicli  is  not 
enjoined  or  required  in  the  Scriptures  and  the  Standards 
of  the  Church. 

We  have,  at  one  time,  resisted  the  popular  demand  to 
make  total  abstinence  from  intoxicating  liquors  a  term  of 
membership.  At  another  time,  the  holding  of  slaves.  In 
firmly  resisting  these  unscriptural  demands,  we  have  pre- 
served the  integrity  and  unity  of  the  Church,  made  it  the 
great  conservative  body  of  truth,  moderation,  and  liberty 
of  conscience  in  our  country.  The  Assembly  have  now 
descended  from  this  high  position,  in  making  a  political 
opinion,  a  particular  theory  of  the  Constitution,  however 
correct  and  important  that  theory  may  be,  the  condition 
of  membership  in  our  body,  and  thus,  we  fear,  endangered 
the  unity  of  the  Church. 

In  the  third  place  we  protest,  because  we  regard  the 
action  of  the  Assembly  as  altogether  unnecessary  and  un- 
called for.  It  was  required  neither  to  instruct  nor  excite 
our  brethren  in  the  Northern  States.  It  was  not  needed 
as  a  vindication  of  the  loyalty  of  the  North. 

Old-school  Presbyterians  everywhere  out  of  the  so- 
called  seceding  States,  have  openly  avowed  and  conspicu- 
ously displayed  their  allegiance  to  the  Constitution  and 
the  Government,  and  that  in  many  cases  at  great  cost  and 
peril.  Nor  was  such  action  required  by  our  duty  to  the 
country.  We  are  fully  persuaded  that  we  best  promote 
the  interests  of  the  country  by  preserving  the  integrity 
and  unity  of  the  Church. 

We  regard  this  action  of  the  Assembly,  therefore,  as  a 
great  national  calamity,  as  well  as  the  most  disastrous  to 
the  interests  of  our  Church  which  has  marked  its  history. 

We  protest,  fourthly,  because  we  regard  the  action  of 
the  Assembly  as  unjust  and  cruel  in  its  bearing  on  our 
Southern  brethren.  It  was,  in  our  judgment,  unfair  to 
entertain  and  decide  such  a  momentous  question  when  the 
great   majority  of  our  Southern  Presbyteries  were,  from 


384  APPENDIX. 

necessity,  unrepresented  in  this  body.  And  it  is,  in  our 
judgment,  a  violation  of  the  law  of  love  to  adopt  an  act 
which  must  expose  the  Southern  churches  that  remain  in 
connection  with  our  Church,  to  suspicion,  to  loss  of  prop- 
erty, to  personal  danger,  and  which  tends  to  destroy  their 
usefulness  in  their  appointed  fields  of  labor. 

And  finally  we  protest,  because  we  believe  the  act  of 
the  Assembly  will  not  only  diminish  the  resources  of  the 
Church,  but  greatly  weaken  its  power  for  good,  and  expose 
it  to  the  danger  of  being  carried  away  more  and  more  from 
its  true  principles  by  a  worldly  or  fanatical  spirit. 

(c)    The  Aiiszver  to  this  and  Other  Protests,  Adopted  by  the 

Assembly. 

The  action  of  the  General  Assembly,  in  reference  to 
which  these  Protests  are  offered,  embraces  two  resolutions, 
against  the  former  of  which  no  objection  is  alleged.  The 
whole  stress  of  the  protestation  is  directed  upon  the  fol- 
lowing sentence  in  the  second  Resolution : 

"  Resolvedy  That  this  General  Assembly,  in  the  spirit  of 
that  Christian  patriotism  which  the  Scriptures  enjoin,  and 
which  has  always  characterized  this  Church,  do  hereby 
acknowledge  and  declare  our  obligation  to  promote  and 
perpetuate,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  the  integrity  of  these 
United  States,  and  to  strengthen,  uphold,  and  encourage 
the  Federal  Government  in  the  exercise  of  all  its  functions 
under  our  noble  Constitution;  and  to  this  Constitution,  in 
all  its  provisions,  requirements,  and  principles,  we  profess 
our  unabated  loyalty." 

The  first  and  main  ground  of  a  protest  against  the 
adoption  of  this  resolution,  is,  that  the  General  Assembly 
has  no  right  to  decide  purely  political  questions ;  that  the 
question  whether  the  allegiance  of  American  citizens  is  due 
primarily  and  eminently  to  the  State,  or  to  the  Union,  is 
purely  political,  of  the  gravest  character,  dependent  upon 
constitutional  theories  and  interpretations,  respecting  which 
various  opinions  prevail  in  different  sections  of  our  coun- 


THE   SPRING   RESOLUTIONS,  1S61.  385 

try ;  that  the  action  of  the  Assembly  virtually  determines 
this  vexed  question,  decides  to  what  Government  the  alle- 
giance of  Presbyterians,  as  citizens,  is  due,  and  makes  that 
decision  a  term  of  communion. 

That  the  action  of  the  Assembly  has  political  as  well  as 
moral  bearings,  is  readily  admitted.  So  had  the  decision 
of  our  Divine  Master,  when  he  said  to  the  Pharisees  and 
Herodians,  *'  Render  to  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's," 
Mark  xii.  1 7  ;  a  decision  still  binding  upon  all  men,  and 
underlying  this  very  act  of  the  Assembly.  The  payment 
of  the  required  tax  was  both  a  moral  and  a  poHtical  duty. 

"  There  are  occasions,"  says  the  author  of  an  able  arti- 
cle on  "The  State  of  the  Country,"  in  the  January  num- 
ber of  the  Princeton  Review,  "  there  are  occasions  when 
political  questions  rise  into  the  spJiere  of  morals  and  re- 
ligion; when  the  rule  of  political  action  is  to  be  sought, 
not  in  considerations  of  State  policy,  but  in  the  law  of 
God.  .  .  .  When  the  question  to  be  decided  turns  upon 
moral  principles  ;  when  reason,  conscience,  and  the  religious 
sentiment  are  to  be  addressed,  it  is  the  privilege  and  duty 
of  all  ivho  have  access  in  any  way  to  the  public  ear,  to  en- 
deavour to  allay  unholy  feeling,  and  to  bring  truth  to  bear 
on  the  minds  of  their  fellow-citizens."  The  General  As- 
sembly heartily  approve  these  principles,  and  doubt  not 
that  if  ever  there  was  an  occasion  when  political  questions 
rose  into  the  sphere  of  morals  and  religion,  the  present  cir- 
cumstances of  our  beloved  country  are  of  that  character. 

The  protestants  "  deny  the  right  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly to  decide  to  what  Government  the  allegiance  of  Presby- 
terians, as  citizens,  is  due."  Strictly  speaking,  the  Assem- 
bly has  made  no  such  decision.  They  have  said  nothing 
respecting  the  allegiance  of  the  subjects  of  any  foreign 
power,  or  that  of  the  members  of  our  mission  churches  in 
India,  China,  or  elsewhere,  who  may  hold  connection  with 
our  denomination.  The  action  complained  of  relates  solely 
to  American  Presbyterians,  citizens  of  these  United  States. 

Even  with  regard  to  them,  the  Assembly  has  not  de- 
termined, as  between  conflicting  governments,  to  which 


386  APPENDIX. 

our  allegiance  is  due.  We  are  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica. Such  is  the  distinctive  name,  ecclesiastical  and  legal, 
under  which  we  have  been  chosen  to  be  known  by  our  sis- 
ter churches  and  by  the  world.  In  the  seventy-four  years 
of  our  existence,  Presbyterians  have  known  but  one  supreme 
government,  one  nationality,  within  our  wide-spread  ter- 
ritory. We  know  no  other  now.  History  tells  of  none. 
The  Federal  Government  acknowledges  none.  No  nation 
on  earth  recognizes  the  existence  of  two  independent 
sovereignties  within  these  United  States.  What  Divine 
Providence  may  intend  for  us  hereafter — what  curse  of 
rival  and  hostile  sovereignties  within  this  broad  heritage 
of  our  fathers — we  presume  not  to  determine.  Do  these 
protestants,  who  so  anxiously  avoid  political  entanglements, 
desire  the  General  Assembly  to  anticipate  the  dread  deci- 
sion of  impending  battle,  the  action  of  our  own  Govern- 
ment, the  determination  of  foreign  powers,  and  even  the 
ultimate  arbitration  of  Heaven?  Would  they  have  us 
recognize,  as  good  Presbyterians,  men  whom  our  own 
Government,  with  the  approval  of  Christendom,  may  soon 
execute  as  traitors?  May  not  the  highest  Court  of  our 
Church,  speaking  as  the  interpreter  of  the  holy  law  which 
says,  **  Ye  must  needs  be  subject,  not  only  for  wrath,  but 
also  for  conscience'  sake,"  Rom.  xiii.  5,  warn  her  com- 
municants against  **  resisting  the  ordinance  of  God"? 
Rom.  xiii.  2.  In  the  language  of  the  learned  Reviewer 
above  cited,  "Is  disunion  morally  right?  Does  it  not 
involve  a  breach  of  faith,  and  a  violation  of  the  oaths  by 
which  that  faith  was  confirmed?  We  believe,  under  exist- 
ing circumstances,  that  it  does,  and  therefore  it  is  as  dread- 
ful a  blow  to  the  Church  as  it  is  to  the  State.  If  a  crime 
at  all,  it  is  one  the  heinousness  of  which  can  only  be  im- 
perfectly estimated." 

In  the  judgment  of  this  Assembly,  **this  saying  is  true  ;" 
and  therefore  the  admission,  on  the  part  of  the  Assembly, 
that  Presbyterians  may  take  up  arms  against  the  Federal 
Government,  or  aid  and  comfort  its  enemies,  and  yet  be 


THE   SPRIiXG   RESOLUTIONS,  1861.  387 

guiltless,  would  exhibit  that  "  practical  recognition  of  the 
right  of  secession,"  which,  says  the  Reviewer,  would  "  de- 
stroy our  national  life." 

But  we  deny  that  this  deliverance  of  the  Assembly  estab- 
lishes any  new  term  of  communion.  The  terms  of  Chris- 
tian fellowship  are  laid  down  in  the  word  of  God,  and  are 
embodied  in  our  standards.  It  is  competent  to  this  Court 
to  interpret  and  apply  the  doctrines  of  the  word ;  to  warn 
men  against  prevailing  sins ;  and  to  urge  the  performance 
of  neglected  duties.  We  regard  the  action,  against  which 
these  protests  are  levelled,  simply  as  a  faithful  declaration, 
by  the  Assembly,  of  Christian  duty  toward  those  in  author- 
ity over  us  ;  which  adds  nothing  to  the  terms  of  communion 
already  recognized.  Surely  the  idea  of  the  obligation  of 
loyalty  to  our  Federal  Government  is  no  new  thing  to 
Presbyterians. 

And  this  is  a  sufficient  reply,  also,  to  the  second  article 
of  this  Protest.  Having  established  no  new  term  of  mem- 
bership, this  Assembly  is  not  liable  to  the  charge  of  hav- 
ing departed  from  the  old  paths. 

A  third  ground  of  protest  is  the  allegation  that  this 
action  of  the  Assembly  is  uncalled  for,  and  unnecessary. 
Yet,  on  the  admission  of  these  protestants  themselves,  it 
is  "  a  notorious  fact,"  that  many  of  our  ministers  and 
members  believe  themselves  absolved  from  all  obligations 
of  loyalty  to  our  National  Government — believe,  in  con- 
tradiction to  the  Princeton  Reviewer,  that  disunion  is 
morally  right ;  and  some  are  already  in  arms  to  vindicate 
these  opinions.  What,  when  "  a  crime,  the  heinousness  of 
which  can  only  be  imperfectly  estimated  " — "  striking  as 
dreadful  a  blow  at  the  Church  as  at  the  State,"  is  already 
committed;  when  thousands  of . Presbyterians  are  Hkely  to 
be  seduced  from  their  allegiance  by  the  machinations  of 
wicked  men ;  when  our  national  prosperity  is  overclouded  ; 
when  every  material  interest  is  in  jeopardy,  and  every 
spiritual  energy  paralyzed ;  when  armed  rebellion  joins 
issue  with  armed  authority  on  battle-fields,  where  tens 
of  thousands  must  perish;    when  it  remains  a  question, 


388  APPENDIX. 

whether  our  national  hfe  survives  the  conflict,  or  whether 
our  sun  sets  in  anarchy  and  blood — is  it  uncalled  for,  un- 
necessary, for  this  Christian  Assembly  to  renew,  in  the 
memories  and  hearts  of  a  Christian  people,  respect  for  the 
majesty  of  law,  and  a  sense  of  the  obligation  of  loyalty? 
Let  posterity  decide  between  us. 

That  this  decision  of  the  Assembly  is  unjust  to  a  portion 
of  our  Church,  not  now  fully  represented  in  this  body,  is 
a  fourth  reason  of  protest.  We  need  only  reply  that  the 
roll  of  this  Assembly  shows  delegates  from  Virginia,  Ken- 
tucky, Missouri,  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and 
Texas,  All  might  have  been  as  easily  represented.  Be- 
sides, the  action  has  no  local  or  sectional  character.  The 
subject  is  of  national  relations,  as  well  as  of  such  pressing 
urgency,  that  to  have  waited  for  a  full  Southern  represen- 
tation, in  a  future  Assembly,  would  have  been  to  lose  for- 
ever the  critical  moment  when  action  would  be  productive 
of  good. 

As  to  the  final  ground  of  protest,  it  is  enough  to  record 
our  simple  denial  of  the  opinions  expressed.  We  sincerely 
believe  that  this  action  of  the  General  Assembly  will  in- 
crease the  power  of  the  Church  for  good;  securing,  as  we 
humbly  trust  it  will,  the  favour  of  her  exalted  Head,  in 
behalf  of  those  who  testify  for  a  suffering  truth. 


XIX.  ADDRESS  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY 
TO  ALL  THE  CHURCHES  OF  JESUS  CHRIST,  ADOPTED 
1861. 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  Confederate  States  of  America,  to  all  the  Churches  of 
Jesus  Christ  throughout  the  earth,  greeting  :  Grace,  mercy, 
and  peace  be  multiplied  upon  you  : 

DEARLY  BELOVED  BRETHREN :  It  is  probably 
known  to  you  that  the  Presbyteries  and  Synods  in  the 
Confederate  States,  which  were  formerly  in  connection 
with  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 


THE   SOUTHERN  ADDRESS,  1861.  389 

the  United  States  of  America,  have  renounced  the  juris- 
diction of  that  body ;  and  dissolved  the  ties  which  bound 
them  ecclesiasticaUy  with  their  brethren  of  the  North. 
This  act  of  separation  left  them  without  any  formal  union 
among  themselves.  But  as  they  were  one  in  faith  and 
order,  and  still  adhered  to  their  old  standards,  measures 
were  promptly  adopted  for  giving  expression  to  their 
unity,  by  the  organization  of  a  Supreme  Court,  upon  the 
model  of  the  one  whose  authority  they  had  just  relin- 
quished. Commissioners  duly  appointed,  from  all  the 
Presbyteries  of  these  Confederate  States,  met  accordingly, 
in  the  City  of  Augusta,  on  the  fourth  day  of  December, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty  one,  and  then  and  there  proceeded  to  constitute 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
Confederate  States  of  America.  The  Constitution  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Unitqd  States — that  is  to  say, 
the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  the  Larger  and 
Shorter  Catechisms,  the  Form  of  Government,  the  Book 
of  Discipline,  and  the  Directory  for  Worship — were  unani- 
mously and  solemnly  declared  to  be  tlie  Constitution  of 
the  Church  in  the  Confederate  States,  w^ith  no  other 
change  than  the  substitution  of  "  Confederate "  for 
*'  United  "  wherever  the  country  is  mentioned  in  the  stand- 
ards. The  Church,  therefore,  in  these  seceded  States, 
presents  now  the  spectacle  of  a  separate,  and  independent, 
and  complete  organization,  under  the  style  and  title  of 
The  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Confederate  States  of 
America.  In  thus  taking  its  place  among  sister  Churches 
of  this  and  other  countries,  it  seems  proper  that  it  should 
set  forth  the  causes  which  have  impelled  it  to  separate 
from  the  Church  of  the  North,  and  to  indicate  a  general 
view  of  the  course  which  it  feels  it  incumbent  upon  it  to 
pursue  in  the  new  circumstances  in  which  it  is  placed. 

We  should  be  sorry  to  be  regarded  by  our  brethren  in 
any  part  of  the  world  as  guilty  of  schism.  We  are  not 
conscious  of  any  purpose  to  rend  the  body  of  Christ.  On 
the  contrary,  our  aim   has   been  to  promote  the  unity  of 


390  APPENDIX. 

the  Spirit  in  the  bonds  of  peace.  If  we  know  our  own 
hearts,  and  can  form  any  just  estimate  of  the  motives 
which  have  governed  us,  we  have  been  prompted  by  a 
sincere  desire  to  promote  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  effi- 
ciency, energy,  harmony,  and  zeal  of  his  visible  kingdom 
in  the  earth.  We  have  separated  from  our  brethren  of 
the  North  as  Abraham  separated  from  Lot — because  we 
are  persuaded  that  the  interests  of  true  religion  will  be 
more  effectually  subserved  by  two  independent  Churches, 
under  the  circumstances  in  which  the  two  countries  are 
placed,  than  by  one  united  body. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  the  course  of  the  last  Assembly,  at 
Philadelphia,  conclusively  shows  that  if  we  should  remain 
together,  the  political  questions  which  divide  us  as  citizens, 
will  be  obtruded  on  our  Church  Courts,  and  discussed  by 
Christian  Ministers  and  Elders  with  all  the  acrimony,  bit- 
terness, and  rancor  with -which  such  questions  are  usually 
discussed  by  men  of  the  world.  Our  Assembly  would 
present  a  mournful  spectacle  of  strife  and  debate.  Com- 
missioners from  the  Northern  w^ould  meet  with  Commis- 
sioners from  the  Southern  Confederacy,  to  wrangle  over 
the  questions  which  have  split  them  into  two  confedera- 
cies, and  involved  them  in  furious  and  bloody  war.  They 
would  denounce  each  other,  on  the  one  hand,  as  tyrants 
and  oppressors,  and  on  the  other,  as  traitors  and  rebels. 
The  Spirit  of  God  would  take  his  departure  from  these 
scenes  of  confusion,  and  leave  the  Church  lifeless  and 
powerless,  an  easy  prey  to  the  sectional  divisions  and 
angry  passions  of  its  members.  Two  nations,  under  any 
circumstances,  except  those  of  perfect  homogeneousness, 
cannot  be  united  in  one  Church,  without  the  rigid  exclu- 
sion of  all  ci\  il  and  secular  questions  from  its  halls.  Where 
the  countries  dififer  in  their  customs  and  institutions,  and 
viev/  each  other  with  an  eye  of  jealous}^  and  rivalry,  if 
national  feelings  are  permitted  to  enter  the  Church  Courts, 
there  must  be  an  end  of  harmony  and  peace.  The  preju- 
dices of  the  man  and  the  citizen  will  prove  stronger  than 
the  charity  of  the  Christian.*'   When  they  have   allowed 


THE   SOUTHERN  ADDRESS,  1861.  39 1 

themselves  to  denounce  each  other  for  their  national  pecul- 
iarities, it  will  be  hard  to  join  in  cordial  fellowship  as 
members  of  the  same  spiritual  family.  Much  more  must 
this  be  the  case  where  the  nations  are  not  simply  rivals, 
but  enemies — when  they  hate  each  other  with  a  cruel 
hatred — when  they  are  engaged  in  a  ferocious  and  bloody 
war,  and  when  the  worst  passions  of  human  nature  are 
stirred  to  their  very  depths.  An  Assembly  composed  of 
representatives  from  two  such  countries,  could  have  no 
security  for  peace  except  in  a  steady,  uncompromising  ad- 
herence to  the  Scriptural  principle,  that  it  would  know  no 
man  after  the  flesh ;  that  it  would  aboHsh  the  distinctions 
of  Barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  and  free,  and  recognize  noth- 
ing but  the  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  moment 
it  permits  itself  to  know  the  Confederate  or  the  United 
States,  the  moment  its  members  meet  as  citizens  of  these 
countries  our  political  differences  will  be  transferred  to  the 
house  of  God,  and  the  passions  of  the  forum  will  expel  the 
Spirit  of  Holy  Love  and  of  Christian  communion. 

We  cannot  condemn  a  man,  in  one  breath,  as  unfaithful 
to  the  most  solemn  earthly  interests — his  country  and  his 
race — and  commend  him  in  the  next  as  a  loyal  and  faith- 
ful servant  of  his  God.  If  we  distrust  his  patriotism,  our 
confidence  is  apt  to  be  very  measured  in  his  piety.  The 
old  adage  will  hold  here  as  in  other  things,  falsus  in  tino, 
falsiis  in  omnibus. 

The  only  conceivable  condition,  therefore,  upon  which 
the  Church  of  the  North  and  the  South  could  remain  to- 
gether as  one  body,  with  any  prospect  of  success,  is  the 
rigorous  exclusion  of  the  questions  and  passions  of  the 
forum  from  its  halls  of  debate.  This  is  what  always  ought 
to  be  done.  The  provinces  of  Church  and  State  are  per- 
fectly distinct,  and  the  one  has  no  right  to  usurp  the  juris- 
diction of  the  other.  The  State  is  a  natural  institute, 
founded  in  the  constitution  of  man  as  moral  and  social, 
and  designed  to  realize  the  idea  of  justice.  It  is  the  so- 
ciety of  rights.  The  Church  is  a  supernatural  institute, 
founded   in   the    facts   of  redemption,  and  is  designed  to 


392  APPENDIX, 

realize  the  idea  of  grace.  It  is  the  society  of  the  re- 
deemed. The  State  aims  at  social  order,  the  Church  at 
spiritual  holiness.  The  State  looks  to  the  visible  and  out- 
ward, the  Church  is  concerned  for  the  invisible  and  in- 
ward. The  badge  of  the  State's  authority  is  the  sword, 
by  which  it  becomes  a  terror  to  evil  doers,  and  a  praise  to 
them  that  do  well.  The  badge  of  the  Church's  authority 
is  the  keys,  by  which  it  opens  and  shuts  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  according  as  men  are  believing  or  impenitent. 
The  power  of  the  Church  is  exclusively  spiritual,  that  of 
the  State  includes  the  exercise  of  force.  The  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Church  is  a  Divine  revelation — the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  State  must  be  determined  by  human  reason 
and  the  course  of  Providential  events.  The  Church  has 
no  right  to  construct  or  modify  a  government  for  the 
State,  and  the  State  has  no  right  to  frame  a  creed  or  pol- 
ity for  the  Church.  They  are  as  planets  moving  in  differ- 
ent orbits,  and  unless  each  is  confined  to  its  own  tract,  the 
consequences  may  be  as  disastrous  in  the  moral  world  as 
the  collision  of  different  spheres  in  the  world  of  matter. 
It  is  true  that  there  is  a  point  at  which  their  respective 
jurisdictions  seem  to  meet — in  the  idea  of  duty.  But 
even  duty  is  viewed  by  each  in  very  different  lights.  The 
Church  enjoins  it  as  obedience  to  God,  and  the  State  en- 
forces it  as  the  safeguard  of  order.  But  there  can  be  no 
collision,  unless  one  or  the  other  blunders  as  to  the  things 
that  are  materially  right.  When  the  State  makes  wicked 
laws,  contradicting  the  eternal  principles  of  rectitude,  the 
Church  is  at  liberty  to  testify  against  them,  and  humbly 
to  petition  that  they  may  be  repealed.  In  like  manner, 
if  the  Church  become  seditious  and  a  disturber  of  the 
peace,  the  State  has  a  right  to  abate  the  nuisance.  In 
ordinary  cases,  however,  there  is  not  likely  to  be  a  colli- 
sion. Among  a  Christian  people,  there  is  little  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  the  radical  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong. 
The  only  serious  danger  is  where  moral  duty  is  condi- 
tioned upon  a  political  question.  Under  the  pretext  of 
inculcating  duty,  the  Church  may  usurp  the  power  to  de- 


THE   SOUTHERN  ADDRESS,  1861.  393 

termine  the  question  which  conditions  it,  and  that  is  pre- 
cisely what  she  is  debarred  from  doing.  The  condition 
must  be  given.  She  must  accept  it  from  the  State,  and 
then  her  own  course  is  clear.  If  Caesar  is  your  master, 
then  pay  tribute  to  him;  but  whether  the  "if"  holds 
whether  Cassar  is  your  master  or  not,  whether  he  ever 
had  any  just  authority,  whether  he  now  retains  it,  or  has 
forfeited  it,  these  are  points  which  the  Church  has  no 
commission  to  adjudicate. 

Had  these  principles  been  steadily  maintained  by  the 
Assembly  at  Philadelphia,  it  is  possible  that  the  ecclesi- 
astical separation  of  the  North  and  the  South  might  have 
been  deferred  for  years  to  come.  Our  Presbyteries,  many 
of  them,  clung  with  tenderness  to  the  recollections  of  the 
past.  Sacred  memories  gathered  around  that  venerable 
Church  which  had  breasted  many  a  storm  and  trained  our 
fathers  for  glory.  It  had  alwa3^s  been  distinguished  for 
its  conservative  influence,  and  many  fondly  hoped  that, 
even  in  the  present  emergency,  it  would  raise  its  placid 
and  serene  head  above  the  tumults  of  popular  passion, 
and  bid  defiance  to  the  angry  billows  which  rolled  at  its 
feet.  We  expected  it  to  bow  in  reverence  only  at  the 
name  of  Jesus.  Many  dreamed  that  it  would  utterly 
refuse  to  know  either  Confederates  or  Federalists,  and 
utterly  refuse  to  give  any  authoritative  decree  without  a 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  It  was  ardently  desired  that  the 
sublime  spectacle  might  be  presented  of  one  Church  upon 
earth  combining  in  cordial  fellowship  and  in  holy  love — 
the  disciples  of  Jesus  in  different  and  even  in  hostile  lands. 
But,  alas!  for  the  weakness  of  man,  these  golden  visions 
were  soon  dispelled.  The  first  thing  which  roused  our 
Presbyteries  to  look  the  question  of  separation  seriously 
in  the  face,  was  the  course  of  the  Assembly  in  venturing 
to  determine,  as  a  Court  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  it  did  by 
necessary  implication,  the  true  interpretation  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  as  to  the  kind  of  govern- 
ment it  intended  to  form.  A  political  theory  was,  to  all 
intents  and  purposes,  propounded,  which  made  secession 


394  APPENDIX. 

a.  crime,  the  seceding  States  rebellious,  and  the  citizens 
who  obeyed  them  traitors.  We  say  nothing  here  as  to  the 
righteousness  or  unrighteousness  of  these  decrees.  What 
we  maintain  is,  that,  whether  right  or  wrong,  the  Church 
had  no  right  to  make  them — she  transcended  her  sphere, 
and  usurped  the  duties  of  the  State.  The  discussion  of 
these  questions,  we  are  sorry  to  add,  was  in  the  spirit  and 
temper  of  partizan  declaimers.  The  Assembly,  driven 
from  its  ancient  moorings,  was  tossed  to  and  fro  by  the 
waves  of  popular  passion.  Like  Pilate,  it  obeyed  the 
clamor  of  the  multitude,  and  though  acting  in  the  name 
of  Jesus,  it  kissed  the  sceptre  and  bowxd  the  knee  to  the 
mandates  of  Northern  phrenzy.  The  Church  was  con- 
verted into  the  forum,  and  the  Assembly  was  henceforward 
to  become  the  arena  of  sectional  divisions  and  national 
animosities. 

We  frankly  admit  that  the  mere  unconstitutionality  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  last  Assembly  is  not,  in  itself  con- 
sidered, a  sufficient  ground  of  separation.  It  is  the  conse- 
quences of  these  proceedings  which  make  them  so  offen- 
sive. '  It  is  the  door  which  they  open  for  the  introduction 
of  the  worst  passions  of  human  nature  into  the  delibera- 
tions of  Church  Courts.  The  spirit  of  these  proceedings, 
if  allowed  to.  prevail,  would  forever  banish  peace  from  the 
Church,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  hope  that  the  tide  which 
has  begun  to  flow  can  soon  be  arrested.  The  two  con- 
federacies hate  each  other  m.ore  intensely  now  than  they 
did  in  May,  and  if  their  citizens  should  come  together 
upon  the  same  floor,  whatever  might  be  the  errand  that 
brought  them  there,  they  could  not  be  restrained  from 
smiting  each  other  with  the  fist  of  wickedness.  For  the 
sake  of  peace,  therefore,  for  Christian  charity,  for  the 
honor  of  the  Church,  and  for  the  glory  of  God,  we  have 
been  constrained,  as  much  as  in  us  lies,  to  remove  all  oc- 
casion of  offence.  We  have  quietly  separated,  and  we  are 
grateful  to  God  that,  while  leaving  for  the  sake  of  peace, 
we  leave  it  with  the  humble  consciousness  that  we,  our- 
selves, have  never  given  occasion  to  break  the  peace.     We 


THE   SOUTHERN  ADDRESS,  1861.  395 

have  never  confounded  Caesar  and  Christ,  and  we  have 
never  mixed  the  issues  of  this  world  with  the  weighty 
matters  that  properly  belong  to  us  as  citizens  of  the  King- 
dom of  God. 

2.  Though  the  immediate  occasion  of  separation  was 
the  course  of  the  General  Assembly  at  Philadelphia  in 
relation  to  the  Federal  Government  and  the  war,  yet 
there  is  another  ground  on  which  the  independent  organ- 
ization of  the  Southern  Church  can  be  amply  and  script- 
urally  maintained.  The  unity  of  the  Church  does  not  re- 
quire a  formal  bond  of  union  among  all  the  congregations 
of  believers  throughout  the  earth.  It  does  not  demand  a 
vast  imperial  monarchy  like  that  of  Rome,  nor  a  strictly 
universal  council,  like  that  to  which  the  complete  develop- 
ment of  Presbyterianism  would  naturally  give  rise.  The 
Church  Catholic  is  .one  in  Christ,  but  it  is  not  necessarily 
one  visible,  all-absorbing  organization  upon  earth.  There 
is  no  schism  where  there  is  no  breach  of  charity.  Churches 
may  be  perfectly  at  one  in  every  principle  of  faith  and 
order,  and  yet  geographically  distinct,  and  mutually  inde- 
pendent. As  the  unity  of  the  human  race  is  not  disturbed 
by  its  division  into  countries  and  nations,  so  the  unity  of 
the  spiritual  seed  of  Christ  is  neither  broken  nor  impaired 
by  separation  and  division  into  various  Church  constitu- 
tions. Accordingly,  in  the  Protestant  countries.  Church 
organizations  have  followed  national  lines.  The  Calvin- 
istic  Churches  of  Switzerland  are  distinct  from  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  France.  The  Presbyterians  of  Ireland 
belong  to  a  different  Church  from  the  Presbyterians  of 
Scotland,  and  the  Presbyterians  of  this  country  constitute 
a  Church,  in  like  manner,  distinct  from  all  other  Churches 
on  the  globe.  That  the  division  into  national  Churches, 
that  is.  Churches  bounded  by  national  lines,  is,  in  the 
present  condition  of  human  nature,  a  benefit,  seems  to  us 
too  obvious  for  proof.  It  realizes  to  the  Church  Catholic 
all  the  advantages  of  a  division  of  labor.  It  makes  a 
Church  organization  homogeneous  and  compact — it  stim- 
ulates  holy  rivalry  and   zeal — it   removes  all  grounds  of 


396  APPENDIX. 

suspicion  and  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  State.  What  is 
lost  in  expansion  is  gained  in  energy.  The  Church  Cath- 
ohc,  as  thus  divided,  and  yet  spirituahy  one,  divided,  but 
not  rent,  is  a  beautiful  illustration  of  the  great  philosoph- 
ical principle  which  pervades  all  nature — the  co-existence 
of  the  one  with  the  many. 

If  it  is  desirable  that  each  nation  should  contain  a  sepa- 
rate and  an  independent  Church,  the  Presbyteries  of  these 
Confederate  States  need  no  apology  for  bowing  to  the 
decree  of  Providence,  which,  in  withdrawing  their  country 
from  the  government  of  the  United  States,  has,  at  the 
same  time,  determined  that  they  should  withdraw  from 
the  Church  of  their  fathers.  It  is  not  that  they  have 
ceased  to  love  it — not  that  they  have  abjured  its  ancient 
principles,  or  forgotten  its  glorious  history.  It  is  to  give 
these  same  principles  a  richer,  freer,  fuller  development 
among  ourselves  than  they  possibly  could  receive  under 
foreign  culture.  It  is  precisely  because  we  love  that 
Church  as  it  was,  and  that  Church  as  it  should  be,  that  we 
have  resolved  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  to  realize  its  grand  idea 
in  the  country,  and  under  the  Government  where  God  has 
cast  our  lot.  With  the  supreme  control  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs  in  our  hands,  we  may  be  able,  in  some  competent 
measure,  to  consummate  this  result.  In  subjection  to  a 
foreign  power,  we  could  no  more  accomplish  it  than  the 
Church  in  the  United  States  could  have  been  developed 
in  dependence  upon  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland. 
The  difficulty  there  would  have  been,  not  the  distance  of 
Edinburgh  from  New  York,  Philadelphia,  or  Charleston, 
but  the  difference  in  the  manners,  habits,  customs,  and 
ways  of  thinking,  the  social,  civil,  and  political  institutions 
of  the  people.  These  same  difficulties  exist  in  relation 
to  the  Confederate  and  United  States,  and  render  It  emi- 
nently proper  that  the  Church  in  each  should  be  as  sepa- 
rate and  independent  as  the  Governments. 

In  addition  to  this,  there  is  one  difference  which  so 
radically  and  fundamentally  distinguishes  the  North  and 
the  South,  that  it  is  becoming  every  day  more  and  more 


THE   SOUTHERN  ADDRESS,  1861.  397 

apparent  that  the  rehgious,  as  well  as  the  secular,  interests 
of  both  will  be  more  effectually  promoted  by  a  complete 
and  lasting  separation.  The  antagonism  of  Northern  and 
Southern  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery  lies  at  the 
root  of  all  the  difficulties  which  have  resulted  in  the  dis- 
memberment of  the  Federal  Union,  and  involved  us  in  the 
horrors  of  an  unnatural  war.  The  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States  has  been  enabled  by  Divine  grace  to 
pursue,  for  the  most  part,  an  eminently  conservative,  be- 
cause a  thoroughly  Scriptural,  policy  in  relation  to  this 
delicate  question.  It  has  planted  itself  upon  the  Word 
of  God,  and  utterly  refused  to  make  slaveholding  a  sin, 
or  non-slaveholding  a  term  of  communion.  But  though 
both  sections  are  agreed  as  to  this  general  principle,  it  is 
not  to  be  disguised  that  the  North  exercises  a  deep  and 
settled  antipathy  to  slavery  itself,  while  the  South  is 
equally  zealous  in  its  defence.  Recent  events  can  have 
no  other  effect  than  to  confirm  the  antipathy  on  the  one 
hand  and  strengthen  the  attachment  on  the  other.  The 
Northern  section  of  the  Church  stands  in  the  awkward 
predicament  of  maintaining,  in  one  breath,  that  slavery  is 
an  evil  which  ought  to  be  abolished,  and  of  asserting  in 
the  next,  that  it  is  not  a  sin  to  be  visited  by  exclusion 
from  communion  of  the  saints.  The  consequence  is,  that 
it  plays  partly  into  the  hands  of  abolitionists  and  partly 
into  the  hands  of  slaveholders,  and  weakens  its  influence 
with  both.  It  occupies  the  position  of  a  prevaricating 
witness  whom  neither  party  will  trust.  It  would  be  bet- 
ter, therefore,  for  the  moral  power  of  the  Northern  section 
of  the  Church  to  get  entirely  quit  of  the  subject.  At  the 
same  time,  it  is  intuitively  obvious  that  the  Southern  sec- 
tion of  the  Church,  while  even  partially  under  the  control 
of  those  who  are  hostile  to  slavery,  can  never  have  free 
and  unimpeded  access  to  the  slave  population.  Its  min- 
isters and  elders  will  always  be  liable  to  some  degree  of 
suspicion.  In  the  present  circumstances,  Northern  alliance 
would  be  absolutely  fatal.  It  would  utterly  preclude  the 
Church  from  a  wide  and  commanding  field  of  usefulness. 


398  APPENDIX. 

This  is  too  dear  a  price  to  be  paid  for  a  nominal  union. 
We  cannot  afford  to  give  up  these  millions  of  souls  and 
consign  them,  so  far  as  our  efforts  are  concerned,  to  hope- 
less perdition,  for  the  sake  of  preserving  an  outward  unity 
which,  after  all,  is  an  empty  shadow.  If  we  would  gird 
ourselves  heartily  and  in  earnest,  for  the  work  which  God 
has  set  before  us,  we  must  have  the  control  of  our  eccle- 
siastical affairs,  and  declare  ourselves  separate  and  inde- 
pendent. 

And  here  we  may  venture  to  lay  before  the  Christian 
world  our  views  as  a  Church,  upon  the  subject  of  slavery. 
We  beg  a  candid  hearing. 

In  the  first  place,  we  would  have  it  distinctly  under- 
stood that,  in  our  ecclesiastical  capacity,  we  are  neither 
the  friends  nor  the  foes  of  slavery  ;  that  is  to  say,  we  have 
no  commission  either  to  propagate  or  abohsh  it.  The 
policy  of  its  existence  or  non-existence  is  a  question  which 
exclusively  belongs  to  the  State.  We  have  no  right,  as 
a  Church,  to  enjoin  it  as  a  duty,  or  to  condemn  it  as  a  sin. 
Our  business  is  with  the  duties  which  spring  from  the  re- 
lation ;  the  duties  of  the  masters  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
their  slaves  on  the  other.  These  duties  we  are  to  pro- 
claim and  enforce  with  spiritual  sanctions.  The  social, 
civil,  political  problems  connected  with  this  great  subject 
transcend  our  sphere,  as  God  has  not  entrusted  to  his 
Church  the  organization  of  society,  the  construction  of 
Government,  nor  the  allotment  of  individuals  to  their 
various  stations.  The  Church  has  as  much  right  to  preach 
to  the  monarchies  of  Europe,  and  the  despotism  of  Asia, 
the  doctrines  of  republican  equality,  as  to  preach  to  the 
Governments  of  the  South  the  extirpation  of  slavery. 
This  position  is  impregnable,  unless  it  can  be  shown  that 
slavery  is  a  sin.  Upon  every  other  hypothesis,  it  is  so 
clearly  a  question  for  the  State,  that  the  proposition 
would  never  for  a  moment  have  been  doubted,  had  there 
not  been  a  foregone  conclusion  in  relation  to  its  moral 
character.      Is  slavery,  then,  a  sin? 

In  answering  this  question,  as  a  Church,  let  it  be  dis- 


THE   SOUTHERN  ADDRESS,  1861,  399 

tinctly  borne  in  mind  that  the  only  rule  of  judgment  is 
the  written  Word  of  God.  The  Church  knows  nothing  of 
the  intuitions  of  reason  or  the  deductions  of  philosophy, 
except  those  reproduced  in  the  Sacred  Canon.  She  has 
a  positive  constitution  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  has  no 
right  to  utter  a  single  syllable  upon  any  subject,  except 
as  the  Lord  puts  words  in  her  mouth.  She  is  founded,  in 
other  words,  upon  express  revelation.  Her  creed  is  an 
authoritative  testimony  of  God,  and  not  a  speculation,  and 
what  she  proclaims,  she  must  proclaim  with  the  infallible 
certitude  of  faith,  and  not  with  the  hesitating  assent  of  an 
opinion.  The  question,  then,  is  brought  within  a  narrow 
compass  :  Do  the  Scriptures  directly  or  indirectly  condemn 
slavery  as  a  sin?  If  they  do  not,  the  dispute  is  ended,  for 
the  Church,  without  forfeiting  her  character,  dares  not  go 
beyond  them. 

Now,  we  venture  to  assert  that  if  men  had  drawn  their 
conclusions  upon  this  subject  only  from  the  Bible,  it  would 
no  more  have  entered  into  any  human  head  to  denounce 
slavery  as  a  sin,  than  to  denounce  monarchy,  aristocracy, 
or  poverty.  The  truth  is,  men  have  listened  to  what  they 
falsely  considered  as  primitive  intuitions,  or  as  necessary 
deductions  from  primitive  cognitions,  and  then  have  gone 
to  the  Bible  to  confirm  the  crotchets  of  their  vain  philoso- 
phy. They  have  gone  there  determined  to  find  a  partic- 
ular result,  and  the  consequence  is,  that  they  leave  with 
having  made,  instead  of  having  interpreted,  Scripture. 
Slavery  is  no  new  thing.  It  has  not  only  existed  for  ages 
in  the  world,  but  it  has  existed,  under  every  dispensation 
of  the  covenant  of  grace,  in  the  Church  of  God.  Indeed, 
the  first  organization  of  the  Church  as  a  visible  society, 
separate  and  distinct  from  the  unbelieving  world,  was  in- 
augurated in  the  family  of  a  slaveholder.  Among  the  very 
first  persons  to  whom  the  seal  of  circumcision  was  affixed, 
were  the  slaves  of  the  father  of  the  faithful,  some  born  in 
his  house,  and  others  bought  with  his  •money.  Slavery 
again  re-appears  under  the  Law.  God  sanctions  it  in  the 
first  table  of  the  Decalogue,  and  Moses  treats  it  as  an  in- 


400  APPENDIX. 

stitution  to  be  regulated,  not  abolished ;  legitimated,  and 
not  condemned.  We  come  down  to  the  age  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  we  find  it  again  in  the  Churches  founded 
by  the  Apostles  under  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  These  facts  are  utterl)^  amazing,  if  slavery  is  the 
enormous  sin  which  its  enemies  represent  it  to  be.  It  will 
not  do  to  say  that  the  Scriptures  have  treated  it  only  in  a 
general,  incidental  way,  without  any  clear  implication  as 
to  its  moral  character.  Moses  surely  made  it  the  subject 
of  express  and  positive  legislation,  and  the  Apostles  are 
equally  explicit  in  inculcating  the  duties  which  spring 
from  both  sides  of  the  relation.  They  treat  slaves  as 
bound  to  obey,  and  inculcate  obedience  as  an  office  of  re- 
ligion— a  thing  wholly  self-contradictory,  if  the  authority 
exercised  over  them  were  unlawful  and  iniquitous. 

But  what  puts  this  subject  in  a  still  clearer  light  is  the 
manner  in  which  it  is  sought  to  extort  from  the  Scriptures 
a  contrary  testimony.  The  notion  of  direct  and  explicit 
condemnation  is  given  up.  The  attempt  is  to  show  that 
the  genius  and  spirit  of  Christianity  are  opposed  to  it — 
that  its  great  cardinal  principles  of  virtue  are  utterly 
against  it.  Much  stress  is  laid  upon  the  Golden  Rule  and 
upon  the  general  denunciations  of  tyranny  and  oppres- 
sion. To  all  this  we  repl}/,  that  no  principle  is  clearer 
than  that  a  case  positively  excepted  cannot  be  included 
under  a  general  rule.  Let  us  concede,  for  a  moment,  that 
the  law  of  love,  and  the  condemnation  of  tyranny  and 
oppression,  seem  logically  to  involve,  as  a  result,  the  con- 
demnation of  slavery ;  yet,  if  slavery  is  afterwards  ex- 
pressly mentioned  and  treated  as  a  lawful  relation,  it  ob- 
viously follows,  unless  Scripture  is  to  be  interpreted  as 
inconsistent  with  itself,  that  slavery  is,  by  necessary  impli- 
cation, excepted.  The  Jewish  law  forbade,  as  a  general 
rule,  the  marriage  of  a  man  with  his  brother's  wife.  The 
same  law  expressly  enjoined  the  same  marriage  in  a  given 
case.  The  givei*  case  was,  therefore,  an  exception,  and 
not  to  be  treated  as  a  violation  of  the  general  rule.  The 
law  of  love  has  always   been  the  law  of  God.      It  was 


THE   SOUTHERN  ADDRESS,  1861.  4OI 

enunciated  by  Moses  almost  as  clearly  as  it  was  enunciated 
by  Jesus  Christ.  Yet,  notwithstanding  this  law,  Moses 
and  the  Apostles  alike  sanctioned  the  relation  of  slavery. 
The  conclusion  is  inevitable,  either  that  the  law  is  not 
opposed  to  it,  or  that  slavery  is  an  excepted  case.  To 
say  that  the  prohibition  of  tyranny  and  oppression  include 
slavery,  is  to  beg  the  whole  question.  Tyranny  and  op- 
pression involve  either  the  unjust  usurpation  or  the  un- 
lawful exercise  of  power.  It  is  the  unlawfulness,  either  in 
its  principle  or  measure,  which  constitutes  the  core  of  the 
sin.  Slavery  must,  therefore,  be  proved  to  be  unlawful, 
before  it  can  be  referred  to  any  such  category.  The 
master  may,  indeed,  abuse  his  power,  but  he  oppresses 
not  simply  as  a  master,  but  as  a  wicked  master. 

But,  apart  from  all  this,  the  law  of  love  is  simply  the 
inculcation  of  universal  equity.  It  implies  nothing  as  to 
the  existence  of  various  ranks  and  gradations  in  society. 
The  interpretation  which  makes  it  repudiate  slavery  would 
make  it  equally  repudiate  all  social,  civil,  and  political  in- 
equalities. Its  meaning  is,  not  that  we  should  conform 
ourselves  to  the  arbitrary  expectations  of  others,  but  that 
we  should  render  unto  them  precisely  the  same  measure 
which,  if  we  were  in  their  circumstance,  it  would  be  rea- 
sonable and  just  in  us  to  demand  at  their  hands.  It  con- 
demns slavery,  therefore,  only  upon  the  supposition  that 
slavery  is  a  sinful  relation — that  is,  he  who  extracts  the 
prohibition  of  slavery  from  the  Golden  Rule,  begs  the 
very  point  in  dispute. 

We  cannot  prosecute  the  argument  in  detail,  but  we 
have  said  enough,  we  think,  to  vindicate  the  position  of 
the  Southern  Church.  We  have  assumed  no  new  attitude. 
We  stand  exactly  where  the  Church  of  God  has  always 
stood — from  Abraham  to  Moses,  from  Moses  to  Christ, 
from  Christ  to  the  Reformers,  and  from  the  Reformers  to 
ourselves.  We  stand  upon  the  foundation  of  the  Prophets 
and  Apostles,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  Chief  corner- 
stone. Shall  we  be  excluded  from  the  fellowship  of  our 
brethren  in  other  lands,  because  we  dare  not  depart  from 


402  APPENDIX. 

the  charter  of  our  faith?  Shall  we  be  branded  with  the 
stigma  of  reproach,  because  we  cannot  consent  to  corrupt 
the  Word  of  God  to  suit  the  intuitions  of  an  infidel  philos- 
ophy ?  Shall  our  names  be  cast  out  as  evil,  and  the  finger 
of  scorn  pointed  at  us,  because  we  utterly  refuse  to  break 
our  communion  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  with 
Moses,  David,  and  Isaiah,  with  Apostles,  Prophets,  and 
Martyrs,  with  all  the  noble  army  of  confessors  who  have 
gone  to  glory  from  slaveholding  countries  and  from  a 
slaveholding  Church,  without  ever  having  dreamed  that 
they  were  living  in  mortal  sin,  by  conniving  at  slavery  in 
the  midst  of  them?  If  so,  we  shall  take  consolation  in 
the  cheering  consciousness  that  the  Master  has  accepted 
us.  We  may  be  denounced,  despised,  and  cast  out  of  the 
Synagogues  of  our  brethren.  But  while  they  are  wran- 
gling about  the  distinctions  of  men  according  to  the  flesh, 
we  shall  go  forward  in  our  Divine  work,  and  confidently 
anticipate  that,  in  the  great  day,  as  the  consequence  of 
our  humble  labors,  we  shall  meet  millions  of  glorified 
spirits,  who  have  come  up  from  the  bondage  of  earth  to  a 
nobler  freedom  than  human  philosophy  ever  dreamed  of. 
Others,  if  they  please,  may  spend  their  time  in  declaim- 
ing on  the  tyranny  of  earthly  masters ;  it  will  be  our  aim 
to  resist  the  real  tyrants  which  oppress  the  soul — Sin  and 
Satan.  These  are  the  foes  against  whom  we  shall  find  it 
employment  enough  to  wage  a  successful  war.  And  to 
this  holy  war  it  is  the  purpose  of  our  Church  to  devote 
itself  with  redoubled  energy.  We  feel  that  the  souls  of 
our  slaves  are  a  solemn  trust,  and  we  shall  strive  to  present 
them  faultless  and  complete  before  the  presence  of  God. 

Indeed,  as  we  contemplate  their  condition  in  the  South- 
ern States,  and  contrast  it  with  that  of  their  fathers  before 
them,  and  that  of  their  brethren  in  the  present  day  in 
their  native  land,  we  cannot  but  accept  it  as  a  gracious 
Providence  that  they  have  been  brought  in  such  numbers 
to  our  shores,  and  redeemed  from  the  bondage  of  barba- 
rism and  sin.  Slavery  to  them  has  certainly  been  over- 
ruled for  the  greatest  good.      It  has  been  a  link  in  the 


THE   SOUTHERN  ADDRESS,  ISGl.  403 

wondrous  chain  of  Providence,  through  which  many  sons 
and  daughters  have  been  made  heirs  of  the  heavenly  in- 
heritance. The  Providential  result  is,  of  course,  no  justi- 
fication, if  the  thing  is  intrinsically  wrong ;  but  it  is  cer- 
tainly a  matter  of  devout  thanksgiving,  and  no  obscure 
intimation  of  the  will  and  purpose  of  God,  and  of  the  con- 
sequent duty  of  the  Church.  We  cannot  forbear  to  say, 
however,  that  the  general  operation  of  the  system  is  kindly 
and  benevolent;  it  is  a  real  and  effective  disciphne,  and 
without  it  we  are  profoundly  persuaded  that  the  African 
race  in  the  midst  of  us  can  never  be  elevated  in  the  scale 
of  being.  As  long  as  that  race,  in  its  comparative  degra- 
dation, co-exists,  .side  by  side,  with  the  white,  bondage  is 
its  normal  condition. 

As  to  the  endless  declamation  about  human  rights,  we 
have  only  to  say  that  human  rights  are  not  a  fixed,  but 
a  fluctuating  quantity.  Their  sum  is  not  the  same  in  any 
two  nations  on  the  globe.  The  rights  of  Englishmen  are 
one  thing,  the  rights  of  Frenchmen  another.  There  is  a 
minimum  without  which  a  man  cannot  be  responsible ; 
there  is  a  maximum  which  expresses  the  highest  degree 
of  civilization  and  of  Christian  culture.  The  education  of 
the  species  consists  in  its  ascent  along  this  line.  As  you 
go  up,  the  number  of  rights  increases,  but  the  number  of 
individuals  who  possess  them  diminishes.  As  you  come 
down  the  line,  rights  are  diminished,  but  the  individuals 
are  multiplied.  It  is  just  the  opposite  of  the  predicamental 
scale  of  the  logicians.  There  comprehension  diminishes  as 
you  ascend  and  extension  increases,  and  comprehension 
increases  as  you  descend  and  extension  diminishes.  Now, 
when  it  is  said  that  slavery  is  inconsistent  with  human 
rights,  we  crave  to  understand  what  point  in  this  line  is 
the  slave  conceived  to  occupy.  There  are,  no  doubt, 
many  rights  which  belong  to  other  men — to  Englishmen, 
to  Frenchmen,  to  his  master,  for  example — which  are 
denied  to  him.  But  is  he  fit  to  possess  them?  Has  God 
qualified  him  to  meet  the  responsibilities  which  their  pos- 
session necessarily  implies?     His  place  in  the  scale  i ;  de- 


404  APPENDIX. 

termiiied  by  his  competency  to  fulfil  its  duties.  There  are 
other  rights  which  he  certainly  possesses,  without  which  he 
could  neither  be  human  nor  accountable.  Before  slavery 
can  be  charged  with  doing  him  injustice,  it  must  be  shown 
that  the  minimum  which  falls  to  his  lot  at  the  bottom  of 
the  hne  is  out  of  proportion  to  his  capacity  and  culture — 
a  thing  which  can  never  be  done  by  abstract  speculation. 
The  truth  is,  the  education  of  the  human  race  for  liberty 
and  virtue,  is  a  vast  Providential  scheme,  and  God  assigns 
to  every  man,  by  a  wise  and  holy  decree,  the  precise 
place  he  is  to  occupy  in  the  great  moral  school  of  human- 
ity. The  scholars  are  distributed  into  classes,  according 
to  their  competency  and  progress.  For  God  is  in  history. 
To  avoid  the  suspicion  of  a  conscious  weakness  of  our 
cause,  when  contemplated  from  the  side  of  pure  specula- 
tion, we  may  advert  for  a  moment  to  those  pretended  in- 
tuitions which  stamp  the  reprobation  of  humanity  upon 
this  ancient  and  hoary  institution.  We  admit  that  there 
are  primitive  principles  in  morals  which  lie  at  the  root  of 
human  consciousness.  But  the  question  is,  how  are  we  to 
distinguish  them?  The  subjective  feeling  of  certainty  is 
no  adequate  criterion,  as  that  is  equally  felt  in  reference 
to  crotchets  and  hereditary  prejudices.  The  very  point  is 
to  know  when  this  certainty  indicates  a  primitive  cogni- 
tion, and  when  it  does  not.  There  must,  therefore,  be 
some  eternal  test,  and  whatever  cannot  abide  that  test  has 
no  authority  as  a  primary  truth.  That  test  is  an  inward 
necessity  of  thought,  which,  in  all  minds  at  the  proper 
stage  of  maturity,  is  absolutely  universal.  Whatever  is 
universal  is  natural.  We  are  willing  that  slavery  should 
be  tried  by  this  standard.  We  are  willing  to  abide  by 
the  testimony  of.  the  race,  and  if  man,  as  man,  has  every- 
where condemned  it — if  all  human  laws  have  prohibited 
it  as  crime — if  it  stands  in  the  same  category  with  malice, 
murder,  and  theft;  then  we  are  willing,  in  the  name  of 
humanity,  to  renounce  it,  and  to  renounce  it  forever. 
But  what  if  the  overwhelming  majority  of  mankind  have 
approved  it?  what  if  philosophers  and  statesmen  have  jus- 


THE   SOUTHEKX  ADDRESS,  I'SGl.  405 

tified  it,  and  the  laws  of  all  nations  acknowledged  it?  what 
then  becomes  of  these  luminous  intuitions?  They  are  an 
ignis  fatmis,  mistaken  for  a  star. 

We  have  now,  brethren,  in  a  brief  compass,  for  the 
nature  of  this  address  admits  only  of  an  outline,  opened 
to  you  our  whole  hearts  upon  this  delicate  and  vexed  sub- 
ject. We  have  concealed  nothing.  We  have  sought  to 
conciliate  no  sympathy  by  appeals  to  your  charity.  We 
have  tried  our  cause  by  the  word  of  God ;  and  though 
protesting  against  its  authority  to  judge  in  a  question 
concerning  the  duty  of  the  Church,  we  have  not  refused 
to  appear  at  the  tribunal  of  reason.  Are  we  not  right,  in 
view  of  all  the  preceding  considerations,  in  remitting  the 
social,  civil,  and  political  problems  connected  with  slavery 
to  the  State?  -Is  it  not  a  subject,  save  in  the  moral  duties 
which  spring  from  it,  which  lies  beyond  the  province  of 
the  Church?  Have  we  any  right  to  make  it  an  element 
in  judging  of  Christian  character?  Are  we  not  treading 
in  the  footsteps  of  the  flock  ?  Are  we  not  acting  as  Christ 
and  his  Apostles  have  acted  before  us?  Is  it  not  enough 
for  us  to  pray  and  labor,  in  our  lot,  that  all  men  may  be 
saved,  without  meddling  as  a  Church  with  the  technical 
distinction  of  their  civil  life?  We  leave  the  matter  with 
you.  We  offer  you  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  It  is 
for  you  to  accept  it  or  reject  it.  We  have  done  our  duty. 
We  can  do  no  more.  Truth  is  more  precious  than  union, 
and  if  you  cast  us  out  as  sinners,  the  breach  of  charity  is 
not  with  us,  as  long  as  we  walk  according  to  the  light  of 
the  written  Word. 

The  ends  which  we  propose  to  accomplish  as  a  Church 
are  the  same  as  those  which  are  proposed  by  every  other 
church.  To  proclaim  God's  truth  as  a  witness  to  the 
nations ;  to  gather  his  elect  from  the  four  corners  of  the 
earth,  and  through  the  Word,  Ministries,  and  Ordinances, 
to  train  them  for  eternal  life,  is  the  great  business  of  His 
people.  The  only  thing  that  will  be  at  all  peculiar  to  us, 
is  the  manner  in  which  we  shall  attempt  to  discharge  our 
duty.     In  almost  every  department  of  labor,  except  the 


406  APPENDIX. 

pastoral  care  of  congregations,  it  has  been  usual  for  the 
Church  to  resort  to  societies  more  or  less  closely  connected 
with  itself,  and  yet  logically  and  really  distinct.  It  is 
our  purpose  to  rely  upon  the  regular  organs  of  our  gov- 
ernment, and  executive  agencies  directly  and  immediately 
responsible  to  them.  We  wish  to  make  the  Church  not 
merely  a  superintendent,  but  an  agent.  We  wish  to  de- 
velope  the  idea  that  the  congregation  of  believers,  as  vis- 
ibly organized,  is  the  very  society  or  corporation  which  is 
divinely  called  to  do  the  work  of  the  Lord.  We  shall, 
therefore,  endeavor  to  do  what  has  never  yet  been  ade- 
quately done — bring  out  the  energies  of  our  Presbyterian 
system  of  government.  From  the  Session  to  the  Assembly 
we  shall  strive  to  enlist  all  our  courts,  as  courts,  in  every 
department  of  Christian  effort.  We  are  not  ashamed  to 
confess  that  we  are  intensely  Presbyterian.  We  embrace  all 
other  denominations  in  the  arms  of  Christian  fellowship  and 
love,  but  our  own  scheme  of  government  we  humbly  believe 
to  be  according  to  the  pattern  shown  in  the  Mount,  and,  by 
God's  grace,  we  propose  to  put  its  efficiency  to  the  test. 

Brethren,  we  have  done.  We  have  told  you  who  we 
are,  and  what  we  are.  We  greet  you  in  the  ties  of  Chris- 
tian brotherhood.  We  desire  to  cultivate  peace  and  charity 
with  all  our  fellow  Christians  throughout  the  world.  We 
invite  to  ecclesiastical  communion  all  who  maintain  our 
principles  of  faith  and  order.  And  now  we  commend  you 
to  God  and  the  word  of  his  grace.  We  devoutly  pray  that 
the  whole  Catholic  Church  may  be  afresh  baptized  with 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  she  may  speedily  be  stirred  up 
to  give  the  Lord  no  rest  until  he  establish  and  make  Jeru- 
salem a  praise  in  the  earth. 

XX.  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  OF  UNION  OF  THE  UNITED  SYNOD 
OF  THE  SOUTH  (n.  S.)  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  PRESBY- 
TERIAN   CHURCH    (O.    S  ). 

The  General  Assembly  and  the  United  Synod  of  the 
Presbyterian  Churches  in  the  Confederate  States  of  Amer- 


BASIS   OF  REUNION,  1869.  407 

ica,  holding  the  same  system  of  doctrine  and  church  order, 
and  beUeving  that  their  union  will  glorify  God  by  promot- 
ing peace  and  increasing  their  ability  for  the  edification  of 
the  Body  of  Christ,  do  agree  to  unite  under  the  name  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Confederate  States  of  Amer- 
ica, and  under  the  existing  charter  of  the  Trustees  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Con- 
federate States  of  America,  on  the  following  basis,  viz.  : 

Article  I.  The  General  Assembly  and  the  United  Synod 
declare  that  they  continue  sincerely  to  receive  and  adopt 
the  Confession  of  Faith  and  Catechisms  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church,  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  approve  of  its  government  and 
discipline. 

XXI.    THE    DOCTRINAL  BASIS   OF  THE   REUNION    OF   THE 
OLD-    AND    NEW-SCHOOL    CHURCHES    IN    li 


(i)    The  Doctrinal  Article  Proposed  by  the  Joint  Com- 
mittee in  1867. 

The  Reunion  shall  be  effected  on  the  doctrinal  and 
ecclesiastical  basis  of  our  common  standards;  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith  shall  continue  to  be  sincerely  received  and 
adopted  "  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures"  ;  and  its  fair,  historical  sense,  as  it  is 
accepted  by  the  two  bodies  in  opposition  to  Antinomianism 
and  Fatalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  Arminianism  and 
Pelagianism  on  the  other,  shall  be  regarded  as  the  sense 
in  which  it  is  received  and  adopted  ;  and  the  Government 
and  Disciphne  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  shall  continue  to  be  approved  as  containing  the 
principles  and  rule  of  our  polity. 

(2)    The  Article  Proposed  in  the  Presbyterian  Reunion  Con- 
vention of  1867,  ivitJi  Dr.  Henry  B.  Smith's  Proviso. 

The  Reunion  shah  be  effected  on  the  doctrinal  and  eccle- 
siastical basis  of  our  common  standards;  the  Scriptures  of 


408  APPENDIX. 

the  Old  and  New  Testaments  shall  be  acknowledged  to  be 
the  inspired  Word  of  God,  and  the  only  infallible  rule  of 
faith  and  practice ;  the  Confession  of  Faith  shall  continue 
to  be  sincerely  received  and  adopted  "  as  containing  the 
system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures"  ;  it  being 
understood,  that  this  Confession  is  received  in  its  proper, 
historical — that  is,  the  Calvinistic  or  Reformed, — sense. 


(3)    TJie  Giu'ley  Amendinent,  added  to  the  above  by  the 
Joint  Committee  in  1868. 

It  is  also  understood  that  various  methods  of  viewing, 
stating,  explaining  and  illustrating,  the  doctrines  of  the 
Confession,  which  do  not  impair  the  integrity  of  the  Re- 
formed or  Calvinistic  system,  are  to  be  freely  allowed  in 
the  united  Church,  as  they  have  hitherto  been  allowed  in 
the  separate  Churches  ;  and  the  Government  and  Discipline 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  shall  be 
approved  as  containing  the  principles  and  rule  of  our 
polity. 

(4j    The  Basis  Finally  Adopted  in  1869. 

Believing  that  the  interests  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom 
would  be  promoted  by  the  healing  of  our  divisions,  and 
that  tlie  two  bodies  bearing  the  same  names,  having  the 
same  Constitution,  and  each  recognizing  the  other  as  a 
sound  and  orthodox  body  according  to  the  principles  of 
the  Confession  common  to  both,  cannot  be  justified  by 
any  but  the  most  imperative  reasons  in  maintaining  sepa- 
rate and,  in  some  respects,  rival  organizations ;  we  are  now 
clearly  of  the  opinion  that  the  reunion  of  those  bodies 
ought,  as  soon  as  tlie  necessary  steps  can  be  taken,  to  be 
accomplished,  upon  the  basis  hereinafter  set  forth. 

I.  The  Presbyterian  Churches  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  namely,  that  whose  General  Assembly  convened 
in  the  Brick  Church  in  the  city  of  New  York,  on  the  20th 
day  of  May,  1869,  and  that  whose  General  Assembly  met 


CONCURRENT  DECLARATIONS,  1869.  409 

in  the  Church  of  the  Covenant  in  the  said  city  on  the  same 
day,  shall  be  reunited  as  one  Church,  under  the  name  and 
style  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  possessing  all  the  legal  and  corporate  rights  and 
powers  pertaining  to  the  Church  previous  to  the  division 
in  1838,  and  all  the  legal  and  corporate  rights  and  powers 
which  the  separate  churches  now  possess. 

2.  The  reunion  shall  be  effected  on  the  doctrinal  and 
ecclesiastical  basis  of  our  common  standards ;  the  Script- 
ures of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  shall  be  acknowl- 
edged to  be  the  inspired  Word  of  God,  and  the  only  infal- 
lible rule  of  faith  and  practice ;  the  Confession  of  Faith 
shall  continue  to  be  sincerely  received  and  adopted  as 
containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures  ;  and  the  government  and  discipline  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  the  United  States  shall  be  approved  as 
containing  the  principles  and  rules  of  our  polity. 

XXII.    THE    CONCURRENT   DECLARATIONS    OF    1869. 

As  there  are  matters  pertaining  to  the  interests  of  the 
Church,  when  it  shall  have  become  reunited,  which  will 
manifestly  require  adjustment  on  the  coming  together  of 
two  bodies  which  have  so  long  acted  separately,  and  con- 
cerning some  of  which  matters  it  is  highly  desirable  that 
there  should  be  a  previous  good  understanding,  the  two 
Assemblies  agree  to  adopt  the  following  declarations,  not 
as  articles  of  compact  or  covenant,  but  as  in  their  judg- 
ment proper  and  equitable  arrangements,  to  wit : 

1.  All  the  ministers  and  churches  embraced  in  the  two 
bodies' should  be  admitted  to  the  same  standing  in  the 
united  body,  which  they  may  have  held  in  their  respect- 
ive connections,  up  to  the  consummation  of  the  union. 

2.  Imperfectly  organized  churches  are  counselled  and 
expected  to  become  thoroughly  Presbyterian,  as  early 
within  the  period  of  five  years  as  may  be  permitted  by 
the  highest  interests  to  be  consulted  ;  and  no  other  such 
churches  shall  be  hereafter  received. 


4iO  APPENDIX. 

3.  The  boundaries  of  the  several  Presbyteries  and  Synods 
should  be  adjusted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  united 
church. 

4.  The  official  records  of  the  two  branches  of  the  church 
for  the  period  of  separation  should  be  preserved  and  held 
as  making  up  the  one  history  of  the  church ;  and  no  rule 
or  precedent  which  does  not  stand  approved  by  both  the 
bodies,  should  be  of  any  authority  until  re-established  in 
the  united  body,  except  in  so  far  as  such  rule  or  precedent 
may  affect  the  rights  of  property  founded  thereon. 

5.  The  corporate  rights  now  held  by  the  two  General 
Assemblies,  and  by  their  Boards  and  Com.mittees,  should, 
as  far  as  practicable,  be  consolidated,  and  applied  for  their 
several  objects,  as  defined  by  law. 

6.  There  should  be  one  set  of  Committees  or  Boards 
for  Home  and  Foreign  Missions,  and  the  other  religious 
enterprises  of  the  church ;  which  the  churches  should  be 
encouraged  to  sustain,  though  free  to  cast  their  contribu- 
tions into  other  channels  if  they  desire  to  do  so. 

7.  As  soon  as  practicable  after  the  union  shall  have  been 
effected,  the  General  Assembly  should  reconstruct  and 
consolidate  the  several  Permanent  Committees  and  Boards 
which  now  belong  to  the  two  Assemblies,  so  as  to  repre- 
sent, as  far  as  possible  with  impartiality,  the  views  and 
wishes  of  the  two  bodies  constituting  the  united  church. 

8.  The  publications  cf  the  Board  of  Publication  and  of 
the  Publication  Committee  should  continue  to  be  issued 
as  at  present,  leaving  it  to  the  Board  of  Publication  of  the 
united  church  to  revise  these  issues  and  perfect  a  catalogue 
for  the  united  church  so  as  to  exclude  invidious  references 
to  past  controversies. 

9.  In  order  to  a  uniform  system  of  ecclesiastical  super- 
vision, those  Theological  Seminaries  that  are  now  under 
Assembly  control  may,  if  their  Boards  of  Direction  so  elect, 
be  transferred  to  the  watch  and  care  of  one  or  more  of  the 
adjacent  Synods ;  and  the  other  Seminaries  are  advised  to 
introduce,  as  far  as  may  be,  into  their  Constitutions,  the 
principle  of  Synudical  or  Assembly  supervision ;  in  which 


THE   CHARGE  AGAINST  DR.   BRIGGS.  41  I 

case  they  shall  be  entitled  to  an  official  recognition  and 
approbation  on  the  part  of  the  General  Assembly. 

10.  It  should  be  regarded  as  the  duty  of  all  our  judica- 
tories, ministers  and  people  in  the  united  cliurch,  to  study 
the  things  which  make  for  peace,  and  to  guard  against  all 
needless  and  offensive  references  to  the  causes  that  have 
divided  us ;  and  in  order  to  avoid  the  revival  of  past  issues 
by  the  continuance  of  any  usage  in  either  branch  of  the 
church,  that  has  grown  out  of  former  conflicts,  it  is  ear- 
nestly recommended  to  the  lower  judicatories  of  the  church 
that  they  conform  their  practice  in  relation  to  all  such 
usages,  as  far  as  is  consistent  with  their  convictions  of 
duty,  to  the  general  custom  of  the  church  prior  to  the 
controversies  that  resulted  in  the  separation. 


XXIII.  THE  CHARGES  ON  WHICH  PROFESSOR  BRIGGS 
WAS  TRIED,  AND  THE  SENTENCE  PRONOUNCED  BY 
THE    GENERAL    ASSEMBLY. 

{(i)  TJie  CI  large  against  Dr.  Briggs. 

(i)  Teaching  that  the  Reason  is  a  fountain  of  divine 
authority  to  such  an  extent  that  it  may  and  does  savingly 
enlighten  men,  even  such  men  as  reject  the  Scriptures  as 
the  authoritative  proclamation  of  the  will  of  God  and  re- 
ject also  the  way  of  salvation  through  the  mediation  and 
sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God  as  revealed  therein ;  all  of 
which  is  contrary  to  the  essential  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Scripture,  and  of  the  Standards  of  the  said  Church,  that 
the  Holy  Scripture  is  most  necessary,  and  the  rule  of 
faith  and  practice. 

(2)  Teaching  that  the  Church  is  a  fountain  of  divine 
authority  which,  apart  from  the  Holy  Scripture,  may  and 
does  savingly  enlighten  men ;  which  is  contrary  to  the 
essential  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Scripture  and  of  the  Stand- 
ards of  the  said  Church,  that  tlie  Holy  Scripture  is  most 
necessary,  and  the  rule  of  faith  and  uractice. 


412  APPENDIX. 

(3)  Teaching  that  errors  may  have  existed  in  the  original 
text  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  as  it  came  from  its  authors ; 
which  is  contrary  to  the  essential  doctrine  taught  in  the 
Holy  Scripture  and  in  the  Standards  of  the  said  Church, 
that  the  Holy  Scripture  is  the  Word  of  God  written,  imme- 
diately inspired,  and  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

(4)  Teaching  that  Moses  is  not  the  author  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch, which  is  contrary  to  direct  statements  of  Holy 
Scripture,  and  to  the  essential  doctrines  of  the  Standards 
of  the  said  Church,  that  the  Holy  Scripture  evidences  itself 
to  be  the  Word  of  God  by  the  consent  of  all  the  parts,  and 
that  the  infallible  rule  of  interpretation  of  Scripture  is  the 
Scripture  itself. 

(5)  Teaching  that  Isaiah  is  not  the  author  of  half  of 
the  book  that  bears  his  name,  which  is  contrary  to  direct 
statements  of  Holy  Scripture  and  to  the  essential  doctrines 
of  the  Standards  of  the  said  Church,  that  the  Holy  Script- 
ure evidences  itself  to  be  the  Word  of  God  by  the  consent 
of  all  the  parts,  and  that  the  infallible  rule  of  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture  is  the  Scripture  itself. 

(6)  Teaching  that  Sanctification  is  not  complete  at 
death,  which  is  contrary  to  the  essential  doctrine  of  Holy 
Scripture  and  of  the  Standards  of  the  said  Church,  that 
the  souls  of  believers  are  at  their  death  at  once  made 
perfect  in  holiness. 

(h)  The  Sentence  Inflicted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  1893. 

This  appeal  being  regularly  issued,  and  coming  on  to  be 
heard  on  the  judgment,  the  notice  of  appeal,  the  appeal, 
and  the  specifications  of  errors  alleged,  and  the  record  in 
the  case  from  the  beginning,  and  the  reading  of  said  record 
having  been  omitted  by  consent,  and  the  parties  hereto 
having  been  heard  before  the  judicatory  in  argument,  and 
the  opportunity  having  been  given  to  the  members  of  the 
judicatory  appealed  from  to  be  heard,  and  they  having 
been  heard,  and  opportunity  having  been  given  to  the 
members  of  this  judicatory  to  be  heard,  and  they  having 


THE   CHARGE  AG  A  I. VST  DR.  BRIGGS.  413 

been  heard,  as  provided  by  the  Book  of  Discipline,  and 
the  General  Assembly,  as  a  judicatory  sitting  in  said  cause 
on  appeal,  having  sustained  the  following  specifications  of 
error,  to  wit : 

All  of  said  specifications  of  errors  set  forth  in  said  five 
grounds  of  appeal,  save  and  except  the  first  and  fifth 
under  the  fourth  ground  of  appeal,  on  consideration  thereof, 
this  judicatory  finds  said  Appeal  should  be  and  is  hereby 
sustained,  and  that  said  Presbytery  of  New  York,  the  judi- 
catory appealed  from,  erred  in  striking  out  said  amended 
charges  four  and  seven,  and  erred  in  not  sustaining,  on  the 
law  and  the  evidence,  said  amended  charges,  one,  two, 
three,  five,  six  and  eight ;  on  consideration  whereof  this 
judicatory  finds  that  said  final  judgment  of  the  Presbytery 
of  New  York  is  erroneous,  and  should  be  and  is  hereby 
reversed;  and  this  General  Assembly  sitting  as  a  judica- 
tory in  said  cause  coming  now  to  enter  judgment  on  said 
amended  charges,  one,  two,  three,  five,  six  and  eight,  finds 
the  appellee,  the  said  Charles  A.  Briggs,  has  uttered, 
taught  and  propagated  views,  doctrines  and  teachings,  as 
set  forth  in  said  charges,  contrary  to  the  essential,  doctrine 
of  Holy  Scripture  and  the  Standards  of  said  Presbyterian 
church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  and  in  violation 
of  the  ordination  vows  of  said  appellee,  which  said  erro- 
neous teachings,  views  and  doctrines  strike  at  the  vitals  of 
religion,  and  have  been  industriously  spread ;  wherefore, 
this  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  sitting  as  a  judicatory  in  this 
cause  on  appeal,  does  hereby  suspend  Charles  A.  Briggs, 
the  said  appellee,  from  the  office  of  a  minister  in  the  Pres- 
byterian church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  until 
such  time  as  he  shall  give  satisfactory  evidence  of  repent- 
ance to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  church 
in  the  United  States  of  America,  for  the  violation  by  him 
of  said  ordination  vows  as  herein  and  heretofore  found. 

And  it  is  ordered  that  the  Stated  Clerk  of  this  General 
Assembly  transmit  a  certified  copy  of  this  judgment  to  the 
Presbytery  of  New  York,  to  be  made  a  part  of  the  record 


414  APPENDIX. 

in  this  case.      It  is  also  ordered  that  a  copy  be  furnished 
to  the  appellee,  the  Rev.  Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.D. 


XXIV.    PROPOSED    PLAN   FOR   THE    FEDERATION    OF    THE 
REFORMED    CHURCHES    OF    AMERICA,    1 894. 

For  the  glory  of  God,  and  for  the  greater  unity  and  ad- 
vancement of  the  church  of  which  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  Head,  the  Reformed  churches  in  the  United  States 
holding  to  the  Presbyterian  system  adopt  the  following 
Articles  of  Federal  Union : 

1.  Every  denomination  entering  into  this  Union  shall 
retain  its  distinct  individualit)%  as  well  as  every  power, 
jurisdiction,  and  right  which  is  not  by  this  Constitution 
expressly  delegated  to  the  body  hereby  constituted. 

2.  The  acts,  proceedings,  and  records  of  the  duly  consti- 
tuted authorities  of  each  of  the  denominations  shall  be  re- 
ceived in  all  the  other  denominations,  and  in  the  Federal 
Council,  as  of  full  credit  and  with  proper  respect. 

3.  For  the  prosecution  of  work  that  can  be  better  done 
in  union  than  separately,  an  Ecclesiastical  Assembly  is 
hereby  constituted,  which  shall  be  known  by  the  namxC  and 
style  of  The  Federal  Council  of  the  Reformed  churches 
in  the  United  States  of  America  holding  the  Presbyterian 
system. 

4.  The  Federal  Council  shall  consist  of  four  ministers 
and  four  elders  from  each  of  the  constituent  denomina- 
tions, who  shall  be  chosen,  with  alternates,  under  the 
direction  of  their  respective  supreme  judicatories,  in  such 
manner  as  those  judicatories  shall  respectively  determine. 

5.  The  Federal  Council  shall  promote  the  co-operation 
of  the  federated  denominations  in  their  Home  and  Foreign 
Missionary  work,  and  shall  keep  watch  on  current  religious, 
moral,  and  social  movements,  and  take  such  action  as  may 
concentrate  the  influence  of  all  the  churches  in  the  main- 
tenance of  the  truth  that  our  nation  is  a  Protestant  Chris- 
tian nation,  and  of  all  that  is  therein  involved. 


PROPOSED  PLAN  FOR   FEDERA  TION.  4 1  5 

6.  The  Federal  Council  may  advise  and  recommend  In 
all  matters  pertaining  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  King- 
dom of  Christ,  but  shall  not  exercise  authority,  except 
such  as  Is  conferred  upon  It  by  this  instrument,  or  such 
as  may  be  conferred  upon  It  by  the  federated  bodies.  It 
shall  not  Interfere  with  the  creed,  worship,  or  government 
of  the  federated  denominations.  In  the  conduct  of  Its 
meetings  It  shall  respect  their  conscientious  views.  All 
matters  of  discipline  shall  be  left  to  the  exclusive  and 
final  judgment  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  the  de- 
nomination in  which  the  same  may  arise. 

7.  The  Federal  Council  shall  have  the  power  of  opening 
and  maintaining  a  friendly  correspondence  with  the  high- 
est Assemblies  of  other  religious  denominations,  for  the 
purpose  of  promoting  union  and  concert  of  action  in  gen- 
eral or  common  Interests. 

8.  All  differences  which  may  arise  among  the  federated 
bodies,  or  any  of  them,  In  regard  to  matters  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  Council  shall  be  determined  by 
such  executive  agencies  as  may  be  created  by  the  Federal 
Council,  with  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  Federal  Council 
for  final  adjudication. 

9.  The  officers  of  the  Federal  Council  shall  be  a  Presi- 
dent, Vice-President,  Clerk,  and  Treasurer. 

10.  The  Federal  Council  shall  meet  annually,  and  on  Its 
own  adjournment,  at  such  time  and  place  as  may  be  deter- 
mined. Special  meetings  may  be  called  by  a  unanimous 
vote  of  the  officers  of  the  Council  on  thirty  days'  notice. 

11.  The  expenses  of  the  Council  shall  be  met  by  a 
contingent  fund  to  be  provided  by  a  pro  rata  apportion- 
ment on  the  basis  of  the  number  of  communicants  In  each 
denomination ;  and  the  expenses  of  the  delegates  to  the 
Council  shall  be  paid  from  this  fund. 

12.  Amendments  to  these  Articles  may  be  proposed  by 
the  Federal  Council,  or  by  any  of  the  supreme  judicatories 
of  the  churches  in  the  Federation  ;  but  the  approval  of  all 
those  judicatories  shall  be  necessary  for  their  adoption. 


INDEX. 


"Act  and  Testimony  "  of  1835,  in, 

Adams,  William,  184. 

Adopting  Act  of   1729,   26,   27,  330- 

334,  340- 
Adopting  Act   of    1788,    63-65,   246, 

348-3 so- 
African  School,  85,  104. 
Aiken,  Charles,  213. 
Aitken  Bible,  60. 
Albany,  Synod  of,  72. 
Alexander,  Archibald,  83,  86,  89,  114, 

127,  143,  145,  172,  314,  315. 
Alexander,  David,  41. 
Alexander,  James  Waddell,   97,   107, 

143,  146. 
Alexander,  Joseph  Addison,  144,  219. 
Alexander,  Samuel  D.,  218. 
Alison,  Francis,  35,  51,  8;^,  341. 
Alleghany    Seminary,    84,    275,    276, 

277. 
Alliance* of  the  Reformed  Churches, 

202,  245,  264,  277. 
Allison,  James,  178. 
American  Board,   80,    104,    112,   138, 

182,  201. 
Anderson,  Isaac,  84. 
Anderson,  James,  62,  75-78,  82. 
Anderson,  William  C,  153,  156. 
Andrews,  Jedediah,  19,  332. 
Annan,  Robert,  62. 
Armour,  John  M.,  211. 
Armstrong,    Samuel    Chapman,    195, 

196. 
Army,  161. 
Arnot,  Andrew,  42. 
Ashmun  Institute,  123. 
Associate  Presbytery,  42,  46-57,  60, 

61,  62,  75. 

4 


Associate  Reformed  Church,   61,  62, 

63,   76,   77,   78,   90,  9i>   iio>   133. 
135,  147,  148,  171,  201,  278,  347, 
348,  368,  369,  378,  379. 
Associate  Synod,  75,  76,  91,  92,  128, 
147,  148,   201,  sbs^  354,   369,  378, 

379. 

Associated   Presbyteries,  71. 
Auburn  Declaration  of  1837,  118,  13S, 

159,  177,  357-362. 
Auburn  Seminary,  84,  85,  86,  275. 
Augustine  of  Hippo,  7,  289,  302,  304. 
Awakening,  the  Great,  295-301,  310, 

337-339,  344-346. 
Backus,  John  C,  152,  156. 
Bailed,  Charles  W.,  217,  233. 
Baird,  E.  Thompson,  151. 
Baird,  Henry  M.,  217. 
Baird,  Robert,  130,  145. 
Baird,  Samuel  J.,  145,  211. 
Baker,  Daniel,  172. 
Balch,  Hezekiah,  78,  86,  121,  188". 
Baldwin,  Moses,  49. 
Baptism,   8,  12,   14,  15,   88,   99,   293,. 

297,  298,  301,  302,  318. 
Barber,  Jonathan,  36. 
Barnes,     Albert,     105-107,    109-112, 

113,  124,  128,  130,    132,   133,    140, 

144,    146,    178,  179,    180,  183,  212,, 

230,  267. 
Barrier  Act,  63,  64,  66,  67,  226. 
Baxter,    George    Addison,    116,    119, 

123,  127. 
Baxter,  Richard,  17,  18,  234,  237,  259. 
Beale,  Vivian,  17. 
Beatty,  Charles,  59. 
Beautiful,  the,  98,  302,  303. 
Beecher,  Edward,  108. 
]  Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  108,  291. 
17 


4i8 


INDEX. 


Beecher,  Lyman,  io8,  109,  130,  267. 
Beecher,.  Willis  J.,  214,  215,  255,  note. 
Beman,  Nathaniel  S.  S.,  55,  109,  119, 

127,  146. 
Beveridge,  Thomas,  62. 
Bible  Society,  81,  131,  143,  144. 
Birch,  G.  W.  F.,  266. 
Birney,  James  G.,  132. 
Bishops,   diocesan,    5,  6,    17,    52-55, 

207,  208,  325. 
Bishops,  Scriptural,  2,  226. 
Black,  John,  104. 
Blackburn,  Gideon,  78. 
Blackburn,  William  M.,  217. 
Blair,  Samuel,  30,  32,  37,  82,  337. 
Board  of  Aid  for  Colleges,  198. 
Board  of  Domestic  Missions,  81,  112, 

125,  167. 
Board  of  P2ducation,  112,  113,  274. 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  112. 
Board  of  Publication,  199,  200,  410. 
Boardman,  Henry  Augustus,  169,  314. 
Boards  of  the  church,   80,    125,    138, 

159,  181-183,  410. 
Boston,  22,  23,  29,  31,  48,  49. 
Bowen,  George,  182. 
Brainerd,  David,  39,  40,  78. 
Brainerd,  John,  40,  78. 
Brainerd,  Thomas,  131. 
Breckinridge,  John,  127,   143. 
I'reckinridge,    Robert    J.,     112,    123, 

127,  131,  140,  144,  145,  164,  168, 
Briggs,  Charles  Augustus,   208,   213, 

214,   218,  247,   259,  261-270,   271, 

411-414. 
Brown,  Francis,  215,  217,  270. 
Bullions,  Peter,   128,  147. 
Burr,  Aaron,  35,  36. 
Bush,  George,  144. 
Bushnell,  A^lbert,  182. 
Bushnell,  Horace,  29,  239. 
Caldwell,  James,  57. 
Calvin,  John,   3,   6,  9,  97,  100,   139, 

154,  238,  239,  286,  292. 
Calvinism,  7,  8,  9,  10,  69,  70,  85,  87, 

124,  126,  174,  177,   211,   237,  249, 

251,  287,  288,  291,  295,  296. 
Campbell,  William  O.,  247. 
Camp-meetings,  73. 
Candidates,    examination   of,   35,    44, 

49,  50,  56,  337,  344. 
Carlisle,  Presbytery  of,  108. 


Carolinas,  24,  45,  78. 

Cartwright,  Thomas,  3. 

Catechetical  instruction,  297,  298. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  131. 

Charity,  judgment  of,  12,  14,  37,  293, 

294. 
Charleston,  24. 

Chidlaw,  Benjamin  W.,  131,  162. 
Chinese,  196, 

Christian  Commission,  161,  162. 
Christlieb,  Theodore,  191,  note. 
Churchly  era,  95,  96,  125,  138,   301- 

306. 
Cincinnati,   Presbytery  of,    108,    109, 

270,  271. 
Cleland,  Thomas,  145. 
Cleveland,  John  P.,  119. 
Cleveland  Convention  of  1893,  272. 
Cofifin,  Charles,  78. 
Colleges,  197,  198. 
Columbia  Seminary,  84,  141. 
Colwell,  Stephen,  96,  162. 
Concurrent  Declarations  of  1869,  179, 

180-184,  409-411. 
Confederate        States,       Presbyterian 

Church  in  the,  155-159. 
Congregation,  the,  89,  90,  227-229. 
Congregationalists    14,  15,  20,  21,  22, 

23,   28,  29,  45,   48,  61,  68,   71,  72, 

82,  83,  142,  182,  190,  196,  241,  251, 

280,  284,  285,  353-356. 
Connecticut,   15,   21,   36,   55,   60,   63, 

71,  89,  295,  353-356. 
Conversion,  32,  296,  339,  345. 
Cooper,  Thomas  P.,  131,  280, 
Covenant,  the  Half-Way,  14,  28. 
Covenanters,  4,  5,  40,  41,  60,  61,  62, 

88,  100,  102-104,  233,  307.     (See 

Reformed  Presbyterians.) 
Covenants,   the   Scottish,  40,  41,  42, 

317-327- 
Cox,  Samuel  Hanson,  85,  127. 
Craighead,  Alexander,  41,  42,  332. 
Craven,  Elias  R.,  213,  247,  249,  250, 

280. 
Crawford,  Samuel  Wylie,  103,  160. 
Crosby,  Howard,  213,  216,  247. 
Cross,  John,  41. 
Cross,  Robert,  32,  341. 
Culdees,  2. 
Cumberland    Presbyterians,     74,    75, 

175»  ^93.  278,  300,  308. 


INDEX. 


419 


Cuthbertson,  John,  41. 
Cuyler,  Theodore,  113. 
Cuyler,  Theodore  Ledyard,  219,  247, 

280. 
Dabney,  Robert  L.,  211. 
Dana,  Stephen  W.,  247. 
Danville  Seminary,  275. 
Davenport,  James,  36. 
Davidson,  Robert,  146. 
Davies,  Samuel,  36,  39,  46,  143,  146. 
Davis,  William  C,  159. 
Deacons   and  deaconesses,    190,   228, 

229. 
Declaration   and  Testimony  of   1865, 

168-171,  183,  184. 
Delaware,  19,  25. 
Denton,  Richard,  15,  284. 
De  Witt,  219,  247. 
Dickey,  James  H.,  123. 
Dickinson,  Jonathan,  26,   27,   31,  35, 

43,  143,  334. 
Disciples,  310,  311. 
Discipline,   9-1 1,   29,    141,    142,   240, 

241,  292,  293. 
Dodge,  William  E.,  131,  162. 
Donegal,  Presbytery  of,  49. 
Doolittle,  Justus,  182. 
Doughty,  Francis,  15,  17,  284. 
Drake,  Charles  D.,  247,  349. 
Dubuque    Seminary    (German),    195, 

275- 
Duff,  Alexander,  131,  138. 
Duffield,    George    (i),    57,     59,     63, 

349- 
Duffield,  George  (2),  108,  124,  178. 
Duffield,  George  (3),  146. 
Duffield,  John  T.,  247. 
Duffield,  Samuel  Willoughby,  220, 
Dunlop,  William,  284. 
Dunn,  Robinson  P.,  222. 
Duryea,  Joseph  T.,  222. 
Dwight,  Theodore,  78,  90. 
Eastward,  Presbytery  of  the,  48. 
Education,  25,  34-36,  68,  69,  70,  71, 

82-85,  197-199,  299. 
Edwards,  Jonathan  (i),  31,  36,  37,  39, 

90,  105,  139,  note,  253,  295. 
Edwards,  Jonathan  (2),  154. 
Eldership,  the,  66,  90,  141,  229,  251, 

252,  293. 
"  Elect  infants,"  248,   249,   252,  255, 

257. 


"  Elective  af^nity,"  50,  109,  no,  in, 

113- 

Eliot,  John,  14,  294. 

Elizabethtown,  26,  35. 

Elliott,  Charles,  213,  214. 

Elliott,  David,  119. 

Ely,  Ezra  Stdes,  86,  107,  in. 

Emigration,  spiritual  perils  of,  20,  28, 

29,  293,  295,  300. 
Engles,  William  M.,  91,  107. 
English   Presbyterians,    4,    245,    259, 

294. 
Episcopacy.      (See  Bishops.) 
Episcopalians,  5,  7,  45,  52-54,  56,  60, 

61,  68,  69,  95,  157,  161,  172,  175, 

181,  192,   206-208,   231,   280,   285, 

312,  316. 
Episcopate,  the  historic,  207,  312. 
Evans,  Llewellyn  J.,  213,  270. 
Ewing,  John,  63. 
Exscinding  Acts  of  1837,  117,  119,  141, 

170,  183,  355-357. 
"  Falling  exercise,"  73. 
Farris,  Robert  P.,  167,  168. 
Federal   theology,    87,   88,    105,    124, 

138,  139,  358,  359.  375- 

Federation,  Plan  of,  277-279,  414-415. 

Finley,  Samuel,  36,  46. 

Finney,  Charles  Grandison,  126. 

Foote,  William  Henry,  146. 

Form  of  Government  and  Discipline, 
63-65. 

Fowler,  Henry,  181,  196. 

Free  Church  of  Scotland,  137,  245, 
259,  264,  277. 

Free  Presbyterian  Church,  137. 

Free  Presbytery  of  Miami,  147. 

Freedmen's  missions,  190,  191-194. 

Frelinghuysen,  Jacob,  30. 

Ganse,  Hervey  D.,  221. 

Gellatly,  Alexander,  42. 

General  Assembly  of  1801,  353-355; 
1807,  74,  75;  1810,  106;  r8i8,  133, 
135,  364-368;  1824,  250;  1831,  106, 
107,  109,  no;  1832,  109  ;  1833,  159  ; 
1834,  109;  1835,  III,  116;  1837, 
115-118,355-362;  1838,118,  119; 
1844(0.  S.),  198;  1842-44(0.  S.), 
141;  1845  (O.  S.),  136,  168,  369- 
372;i846(O.S.),i36;i849(O.S.), 
136;  1851  (N.  S.),  135,  372,  373; 
1853  (N.  S.),  135,  373,  374;  1854 


420 


INDEX. 


(O.  S.),  141;  1859  (N.  S.),  182; 
i860  (O.  S.),  141;  1^61  (O.  S.), 
150-155.  379-388;  (South),  155, 
156,  388-406;  1862  (O.  vS.),  164, 
173;  (South),  158;  1864  (O.  S.), 
166,  168,  173;  (South),  158,  159; 
1865  (O.  S.),  167,  168;  1866  (O. 
and  N.  S. ),  169,  173,  174,  272; 
1868  (O.  and  N.  S.),  177,  407  ;  1869 
(O.  and  N.  S.),  179,  180,  408-411  ; 
1870,  180-185,  199,  204;  (South), 
184;  1887,  200;  1888,  204,  205; 
(South),  204,  205  ;  1889,  246  ;  1890, 
254;  1891,  229,  254,  265,  266,  274; 
1892,  254,  266,  275  ;  1893,  268-270, 
272,  274;  1894,  275,  276,  277; 
(South),  205. 

Genesee,  Synod  of,  94,  114,  356. 

Geneva,  3,  9,  10,  97. 

Georgia,  24. 

GiHIand,  James,  122. 

Gillette,  Ezra  H.,  183,  217. 

Grafton,  Presbytery  of,  48. 

Grasty,  John  S.,  219. 

Green,  Ashbel,  65,  86,  105,  107,  no, 
123,  125,  127,  143,  145,  233,  349. 

Green,  William  Henry,  213,  214,  247, 
254,  255,  note,  257,  267. 

Greenville  College,  78,  188. 

Gregory,  Caspar  Rene,  215. 

Gregory,  Daniel  S.,  216. 

Grififin,  Edward  Dorr,  85,  86,  89,  104, 

143- 
Gurley,    Phineas    H.,    169,    170,    176, 

179,  408. 
Hageman,  John  Frelinghuysen,  218. 
Hall,  Charles  Cuthbert,  221. 
Hall,  Isaac  H.,  215. 
Hall,  John,  206,  219,  247,  253. 
Hanover,  Presbytery  of,  39,  59,  60. 
Hastings,  Thomas  S.,  146,  236. 
Hatfie  d,  Edwin  F.,  146,  221. 
Hays,  George  P.,  218,  247,  280. 
Hemphill,  Samuel,  27,  28. 
Hen(ierson,  Alexander,  1 1,  12,  97. 
Henderson,  Matthew,  60. 
Hicock,  Laurens  P.,  212. 
Hill,  Matthew,  17,  18,  29,  284. 
Hill,  William,  146. 
Hodge,    Archibald     Alexander,    139, 

178,  187,  198,   210,   214,  219,  233, 

244,  245,  280.  I 


'  Hodge,  Caspar  Wistar,  210,  247. 

Hodge,    Charles,    ^i,   88,   note,    113, 

127,   135,   140,  141,  144,   145,   146, 

154,   157,    162,  174,   177,   180,   183, 

j      209,  210,  214,  215,  219,  229,  233, 

I      234,  249,  251,  272,  280,  313,  314, 

j      315,  380-388. 

Hopkins,  S.  M.,  234,  235,  note. 

Hopkinsianism,  78,  84,  91,  104,  115, 
!       121,  139,  note. 

Hornblower,  William  Henry,  213. 

Howe,  George,  218. 

Huguenots,  3,  10. 

Hunt,  Thomas  P.,  130. 

Hymn-writers,  40,  78,    146,  220-222, 

237- 
Immigration,    17,    19,   22-24,   28,   29, 

45,  194,  195. 
Incarnation,    the,   95,    96,    237,    238, 

301. 
Independency,    i,    14,    15,    284,    291, 

294. 
Independent       Presbyterian      Church 

(S.  C),  159. 
Indians,  24,  39,  40,  78,  81,  159,   182, 

191,  195,  196,  297. 
Individualism,    13,    87,    88,    96,    100, 

238,  291,  296,  297,  303. 
Inerrancy  of  the  Scriptures,  261-263, 

266,  267,  271,  272,  273,  411,  412. 
Institutional  church,  240. 
Irving,   Edward,   97,    129,    204,    232, 

316. 
Jackson,  Samuel  Macauley,  217. 
Jackson,  Sheldon,  196,  213. 
Jackson,  Thomas  A.,  211. 
Jacobus,   Melanchthon  W.,  144,  178, 

181. 
Jamaica,  L.  I.,  284. 
Jerks,  the,  73. 

Jessup,  Plenry  H,,  182,  212,  213. 
Jessup,  William,   127,   128. 
Johnson,  Herrick,  219,  247,  255,  note, 

270,  280. 
Johnson,  Katherine,  222. 
Junkin,  George,  91,  107,  109-111,  124, 

127,  140,  166,  219. 
Kellogg,  Alfred  H.,  215. 
Kellogg,  S.  H.,  212,  215. 
Kentucky,  73-75. 

Kentucky,  Synod  of,  74,  75,  123,  169, 
170,  171. 


INDEX. 


421 


Knox,  John,  3,   7,  8,  10,  1 1,   70,  97, 
100,  154,  181,   196,  234,  259,  286, 

304- 
Kollock,  Shepherd  K.,  143. 
Krebs,  John  M.,  233. 
Lanibetii  Articles,  7. 
Lampe,  Joseph  J.,  266,  268. 
Lane  Seminary,  108,  270,  275. 
Lanier,  Sidney,  220. 
Larned,  Sylvester,  143. 
Lasco,  John  a,  3,  286. 
Lillie,  John,  213,  216. 
Lincoln  University,  123. 
Liturgies,  Presbyterian,  3,  8,  208,233- 

235,  294. 
"  Log  College,"  30. 
Londonderry,  N.  H.,  23,  48,  76. 
Long  Island,  15,  19,  40,  64,  284. 
Loomis,  A.  \V.,  213. 
Lord,  Daniel,  121. 
Lord's  Supper,  8,  12,  37,  90,  99,  100, 

232,  233,  301,  302,  318. 
Lovejoy,  Elijah  P.,  132, 
Lowrie,  John  C,  213, 
Lowrie,  Samuel  T.,  213,  216,  247. 
Lusk,  Robert,  104,  147. 
Macmillan,  John  (i),  4,  40. 
Macmillan,  John  (2),  59. 
Maine,  22. 

Makemie,  Francis,  18,  19,  1%,  284. 
March,  Francis  A,,  220. 
Martin,  W,  A.  P.,  213. 
Maryland,  17,  19,  25,  29,  284. 
Maryville  Seminary,  84. 
Mason,  Erskine,  91,  119,  127,  146. 
Mason,  John  M.,  77,   82,  89,  90,  91, 

143- 
Mason,  Lowell,  236. 
Mather,  Cotton,  14,  21,  294. 
Maxwell,  William,  122. 
McAuIey,  Thomas,  127. 
McBeth,  Sue,  191. 
McCalla,  William  L.,  107,  no,  127. 
McCook,  Henry  C,  247. 
McCook,  John  J.,  266,   268. 
McCormick,  Cyrus,  151. 
McCosh,  James,  189,  202,  212,  247. 
McCullagh,  John,  131. 
McCune,  William,  205. 
McDowell,  John,  127. 
McFarland,  Amanda  R.,  191. 
Mcllvaine,  J.  H.,  216,  280. 


McKinney,  James,  75. 
McKnight,  John,  88. 
McLeod,  Alexander,  75,  92. 
McPheeters,  Samuel  B.,  164-166,  168, 

218. 
McWhorter,  Alexander,  52,  63. 
Melville,  Andrew,  3,    11. 
Memorial  of  1837,  115,  116,  177,  357- 

362. 
Methodism,  30,  31,  37,  61,  68,  69,  71, 

96,  99,  285,  295,  296,  297,  298,  299, 

305,  306,  312. 
Miller,  John,  225. 
'  Miller,  J.  R.,    219. 
Miller,  Samuel,  83,  86,  87,  88,  89,  1 14, 

115,  122,    123,    125,  127,    141,  143, 
i      145.  233. 
Mills,  Denry,  84,  146. 
Mills,  Samuel  J.,   81. 
"  Misadelphia,"  107. 
Missions,   foreign,   80,  138,   181,  182, 

190,  297,  298,  300. 
Missions,   home,   45,   46,   81,   93,   94, 
i       188,  190,  194-196,  300. 
Mississippi  Valley,  81,  93. 
Missouri,    Synod    of,    167,    169,    170, 

171. 
Moderates,  Scottish,  46,  48,  51, 
Moffat,  J.  C,  217. 
Moore,  Dunlop,  213. 
Moore,  W.  W.,  220. 
Morris,  Edward  D.,  211,  255,  note. 
Murphy,  Thomas,  218. 
Murray,  John,  48,  49,  57. 
Music,  202,  203,  235,  236. 
National    Reform    Association,    280— 

283. 
Nelson,  David,  122,  132,  146. 
Neshaminy  Academy,  30,  35,  59. 
Nevin,  Alfred,  218. 
New  Brunswick,  30,  t^t^,  34,  41. 
New  England,  10,  13,  16,  20,  22,  28, 

29,  45,  48,  49,   57,  59,   60,  76,   83, 

85-89,  142,  143,  160,  187,  287,  288, 

294. 
New  Hampshire,  22,  49,  57,  72. 
New  Haven  theology,  124. 
New  Jersey,  25. 
New   [ersey.   College  of,   34,  35,   36, 

46,^58,  59,  82,  83,  189.  ^ 
New  London  Academy,  35. 
"  New  Side,"  34-40,  43,  44,  250. 


422 


INDEX, 


New  York,  15,  16,  18,  23,  25,  t^?>,  42,  | 
43>  45.  54,  72,  109,  179,  183,  196.    ! 

New  York,  Presbytery  of,  109,  121,  j 
266-209,  411-414. 

New  York,  Synod  of,  34,  36,  43,  121,  ; 

New  York  and  Pliiladelphia,  Synod ; 
of,  43,  44,  45,  46,  49-52,  55,  56,  i 
57,  63-65,  71,  342-347,  34^-353,  ' 
362,  Z^2>.  I 

Newark  Theological   Seminary,    195,  ! 

275-  .  .  I 

Newburg  Theological  Seminary,  91.  1 
Newburyport,  Mass.,  14,  48,  49,  284.  j 
Niccolls,  Samuel  J.,   255,  uote,   268,  \ 

270. 
Norton,  Augustus  Theodore,  218. 
Nottingham  sermon,  32,  34,  337. 
Occom,  Samson,  40. 
Octorara,  41. 
Ohio,  72,  121. 

Ohio,  Synod  of,  108,  109,  121. 
Omaha  Theological  Seminary,  275. 
Palmer,  Benjamin  M.,  156,  157,  219, 

220. 
Parkhurst,  Charles  H.,  219. 
Parsons,  Jonathan,  49. 
Pastorate,  the,  89,  90,  228,  229,  230, 

231,  232. 
Patrick,  2. 

Patterson,  Joseph,  162. 
Patton,    Francis    L.,    212,    219,    220, 

223-225,  247,  257. 
Patton,  William,  119. 
Paxson,  John  R.,  188. 
Paxton,  William  M.,  178. 
Pelham,  Mass.,  22. 
Pennsylvania,  19,  23,  45,  59,  60,  120, 

276,  294,  295. 
Pennsylvania,  Svnod  of,  225. 
Perrine,  M.  L.  R.,  84. 
Peters,  Absalom,  112,  125. 
Phelps,  Austin,  132,  133. 
Philadelphia,  19,  35,  71,  105,  106,  107, 

108. 
Philadelphia,   Presbytery  of,    19,    25, 

48,  50,  246,  256,  286. 
Philadelphia,  Synod  of,  25,  26,  27,  32, 

Zi.  34,  35,  296,  307,  330-341- 
Philadelphia   Reunion   Convention   of 

1867,  407,  408. 
Pierson,  Abraham,  284. 


Pierson,  Arthur  T.,  213,  222. 
Pittsburg  Circular  of  1869,  178. 
Pitzer,  A.  W.,  212. 
Plan  of  Union  of  1758,  43,  44,  49,  50, 

250,  342-347- 
Plan  of   Union  of  1801,  72,  104,  112, 

114,    116,  117,  118,    125,  142,    144, 

note,  183,  353-357,  409. 
Plumer,   William  S.,    117,    127,    215, 

216,  219. 
Poor,  Daniel  W.,  213. 
Post,  George  E.,  212. 
Potts,  George,  107,  127. 
Pratt,  R.  H.,  195,  196. 
Prayer-meetings,  228,  297. 
Predestination,  7,  lOl,  248,  249,  254, 

287,  288,  358. 
Prentiss,  Elizabeth,  220. 
Prentiss,  George  L.,  218. 
"  Presbygational  churches,"  72,  183. 
Presbytery,  the,  226,  227. 
Preston,  Margaret  Junkin,  220. 
Prime,  S.  Irenaeus,  219,  220. 
Princeton  Seminary,  83,   85,   86,   87, 

88,    113,    114,    124,   210,   244,   254, 

255,  257,  275,  276,  314,  315. 
Protestation  of  1741,  32,  2>Zy  334-341, 

343,  344- 
Proudfit,  Alexander,  82. 
Proudfit,  James,  62. 
Psalmody,  8,  43,  49,    52,  78,  90,  104, 

185,  202,   203,  204,   222,  297,   329, 

330,  377,  378. 
Publication  work  and  boards,  77,  199, 

200. 
Puritans,    3,    10,    13-16,    20,    96,   99, 

289-292,  305. 
Randolph,  Anson  D.  F.,  222. 
Rankin,  Adam,  78. 
Redstone,  Presbytery  of,  59,  256. 
Reformed  Church,  2-12. 
Reformed  Presbyterians,  92,  93,  147- 

I4q,    162,  163,    174,    175,    183-186, 

188,  190,   201,  211,    212,  278,  279- 

283. 
Reformed  Presbytery,   40,  41,  47,  75, 

279,  Z^Z- 

Reformers,  2,  238,  239,  304. 
Reid;  W.  R.,  216. 

Reprobation,  248,  249,  252,  255,  257. 
Reunion  of    1869-70,    175-186,    407- 
411. 


INDEX. 


423 


Revision  of  the  standards,  64,  65,  148, 

243-260. 
Revival,  the  great,  of  1801,  73,  74,  238. 
Revivals,  30,  31,  37,  126,  142,  297. 
Rice,  John  Holt,  86,    107,    108,    116, 

122,  125,  188. 

Richards,  James,  84,  85,  86,  104,  177. 
Riddle,   Matthew  B.,   213,   214,   216, 

255,  note. 
Riggs,  Elias,  212. 
Robinson,  Charles  S.,  220,  221. 
Robinson,  Edward,  143. 
Robinson,  William,  39. 
Rodgers,  John,  39,  52,  58,  63,  88,  145. 
Rosbrugh,  John,  57. 
Rotary  eldership,  230. 
Rous,  Francis,  43,  78. 
Rowland,  John,   30. 
Ruskin,  John,  99. 
Salwey,  Richard,  17. 
San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary, 

275- 
Saybrook  Platform,  15,  21,  295. 
Schaff,  Philip,  145,  202,  213,  214,  215, 

216,  217,  220,  221,  247,  302. 
Schermerhorn,  John  F.,  81. 
Scotch-Irish,  6,  16-18,  22-25,  29,  38, 

45'  56,  59,  69,  121,  123,  160,  188, 

287,  288,  295,  296. 
Scotland,  3,  10,  16,  26,  306-308,  317- 

334- 
Scouller,  James  B.,  218. 
Seceders,  4,  5,  27,  41,  42,  43,  51. 
Seminaries,    theological,    83-85,    181, 

195,  274-277,  410,  411. 
"  Separates,"  36,  297. 
Seward,  M.  H.,  222. 
Shedd,  William  G.  T.,  177,  211,  213, 

216,  247,  252. 
Shields,   Charles  W.,   208,   212,   234, 

235,  note. 
Skinner,  Thomas  H.,  107,  127,  146. 
Slater,  George,  217. 
Slavery,  75,   76,   77,   78,  91,  93,  122, 

123,  131-137,    148,    151,   152,    158, 
159,  162,  163,  167,  279,  298,  362- 

374,  377'  Z^Z,  397-405- 
Sloan,  D.  H.,  218. 
Sloane,  James  Renwick  Willson,  219. 
Smith,  Henry  B.,  139,  145,  174,  175, 

176,   177,   178,  209,   213,   217,   2iq. 

249,  407,  408. 


Smith,    Henry    Preserved,    261,    270, 

271. 
Smith,  Robert,  63,  82. 
Smith,  W.  Robertson,  264,  265,  277. 
Smyth,  Thomas,  211. 
Social  spirit,  96,  238,  239,  240,  303- 

306. 
South  Carolina,  47,  48. 
Southern    "  Presbyterian    Church    in 

the  Confederate  States,"   155-159, 

388-407. 
Southern  "  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 

United  States,"  163,  170,  171,  183, 

184,  276. 
Spencer,  Elihu,  40. 
Spencer,  Ichabod,  121,  146. 
Sprague,  William  B.,  145. 

Spring,   Gardiner,    85,    88,    120,    121, 

152-154,  156,  157,  158,  219. 
Spring  Resolutions  of  1861,  152-158, 

379-388. 
Sproat,  James,  63. 
Sproull,  Thomas,  212. 
Squier,  Miles  P.,  1 19. 
Statistics  of  growth,  77,   93,  94,  117, 

120,  121,   125,   126,   184,   185,   197, 

198,  278,  284,  285. 
Stearns,  Jonathan  F.,  139,  173,  179. 
j  Steele,  David,  104,  149,  283. 
Stobo,  Archibald,  284. 
Stryker,  Melanchthon  Woolsey,  221. 
Stuart,   George  Hay,    131,    162,    174, 

185,  186,  219. 
Stuarts,  the,  3,  155. 
Subscription,  26,  7,^,  43,  44,  104,  105, 

139,  140,    174,   249-252,   269,   270, 

330-334,  335'  Zl^^  344,  352,  353- 
Suffolk  Presbytery,  40,  64. 
Sunday-schools,    90,     131,    200,    228, 

236,  298. 
Sustentation  Fund,  189. 
Swing,  David,  223-225,  244. 
Switzerland,  2,  3. 
Synodical  government,    I,  14,  15,  18, 

67,  79,  80,  226,  227,  285-287,  337, 

343- 
Talmage,  T.  De  Witt,  219. 
Taylor,  Nathaniel  W.,  105,  124,  138. 
Temperance    reformation,    108,    no, 

281,  383. 
Tennent,  Ciilbert,  30-33»   3^,   37,  4^, 

52,  90,  143,  307,  334,  337. 


424 


INDEX. 


Tennent,  William,  30,  59,  82. 
Tennent,  William,  Jr.,  30,  31,  334. 
Tennessee,  73-75. 
Testimony  and  Memorial  of  1837,  1 15, 

116. 
Theocracy,  10,  38,  97,  154,  155,  161, 

279-281,  299,  305,  30b. 
Thompson,  Charles  L.,  247,  270. 
Thomson,  Charles,  57. 
Thomson,  John,  26,  332,  341. 
Thomson,  William  M.,  143,  182. 
Thornwell,   James    Henry,    I41,    145, 

157,  158,  note,  159,  183,  209,  219, 

388-406. 
Todd,  John,  39. 
Traill,  William,  18. 
Turner,  D.  K.,  218. 
Tuscaloosa  Institute,  193. 
Ulster,  5,  6,  12,  15-18,  22,  23,  26,  29, 

45,  54,  69,  294,  295,  296,  300. 
Union  Theological   Seminary,  N.  Y., 

114,  271,  274,  275,  276. 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  Va.,  83, 

84,  116. 
United  Church  of  Christ,  Japan,  201, 

277. 
United  Presbyterian  Church,  147,  148, 

185,  190,   201,   202-204,   205,   218, 

277,  282,  374-378. 
United  Synod  of  the  South,  135,  156, 

159,  406,  407. 
Unity  of  the  church,    172,   241,   242, 

306-316. 
Utica,  Synod  of,  117. 
Van  Dyke,  Henry,  219. 
Van  Dyke,  Henry  J.,  247. 
Van  Rensselaer,  Cortlandt,  198. 
Vincent,  Marvin  R.,  215,  216. 
Virginia,  38,  39,  45,  284,  295. 
Wadsworth,  Charles,  219. 
Waldenses,  2,  302,  304. 
Wanamaker,  John,  131. 
Warfield,  Benjamin  B.,  214,  247,  254. 
"  Warwickites."    (See  Reformed  Dis- 
senting Presbytery.) 


Watts,  Isaac,  43,  52,  78,  90. 

Webster,  Richard,  146. 

"  Websterites,"  147. 

Welch,  Ransom  B.,  211. 

Welsh,  20,  27,  56. 

West  Virginia,  24. 

Western  Missionary  Society,  1^2,  117, 

125. 
Westminster  Assembly,  4,  14,  26,  60, 

105,  154,  253,  259,  260. 
Westminster  Confession,  6,  7,  26,  27, 

2>Z,  64,  75>  76,  I47>  155.  159.  174, 
175,  245,  246-260,  262,  263,  290^ 
300,  315,  327-329,  330-334,  335. 
ZZ^,  ZZly  340,  342,  343,  348,  349, 
350- 
Westminster  Directory,  9,  64,  65,  235, 

335,  336,  340,  342,  343,  348,  349. 
Westminster  Shorter  Catechism,  235, 

246,  331-334,  335,  336,  340,  342, 

343,  349- 
Wheelock,  Eleazar,  48. 
Whelpley,  Samuel,  85. 
Whitaker,  Epher,  221. 
White,  J.  W.,  225. 
Whitefield,  George,  30,  31,  36,  tH^  49« 
Wilder,  Royal  G.,  138,  182. 
Willson,  James  Renwick,  92. 
Wilson,  James  P.,  105. 
Wilson,  Joshua  L.,  108,  109,  no. 
Wilson,  Matthew,  64. 
Wilson,  Samuel  R.,  168. 
Witherspoon,  John,  46,  47,  52,  57,  82. 
Witherspoon,  John,  Jr.,  127. 
Wing,  Conway  P.,  213,  218. 
Wodrow,  James,  223. 
Wolfe,  Aaron  R.,  221,  222. 
Women,  83,  190,  191. 
Worcester,  Mass.,  22,  23. 
Wordsworth,  William,  10,  ii. 
Wylie,    Samuel    Brown,    75,    82,    88, 

note. 
Yeomans,  Edward  D.,  213. 
Yeomans,  John  William,  152,  156. 
Zwingli,  Huldrich,  7,  90,  99. 


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